Vinfast, the Vietnamese manufacturer of battery-powered devices and many other things besides, is apparently “gauging” whether to offer its smallest and cheapest battery-powered device – the VF3 – in the United States.
If it can get away with it.
The problem with the VF3 is that it is everything the EVs available for sale in this country are not. It is extremely small, very light (for an EV) and very slow. It only goes about 190 miles, according to reports. And it can’t go much faster than the speed limit on most American highways.
And that’s why it’s cheap.
Vinfast reportedly sells this micro-sized (less than ten feet long) two-door SUV-looking device for the equivalent of just under $20,000 in Vietnam. If such a device were available here, it would be something no other EV for sale here is.
Affordable.
And the danger there is it might actually sell – without using the government to force other people to help pay for each “sale,” as is necessary to move the EVs that are available for sale in this country. (If the federal tax-rebates that subsidize some $7,500 of the cost of buying an EV were cancelled tomorrow, “sales” of the battery-powered devices that are currently available in this country would face-plant even harder than they already have; it is why these subsidies were so fiercely defended – and resurrected – with “bipartisan” support.)
The problem – for Vinfast – is that the VF3 is not likely compliant.
It is too small – and too light – to make it through the gantlet of federal “safety” requirements – especially bumper and side-impact requirements. These requirements have served as barriers-to-entry for a whole slew of small, light – and cheap – little vehicles that one can readily buy in Asia and other outside-the-U.S. markets. Including France, where someone who needs a very basic – and very cheap – little car can buy a voiture sans permis or (VSP) which is a very basic, very cheap little car you don’t even need to have a license to be allowed to drive.
These VSP cars cost less than the equivalent of $5,000.
They are favored by teenagers and young people and people who don’t need more than a very simple, very basic little car for short-distance, low-speed trips – and would rather not pay for more.
But they, too, are noncompliant. And no one is allowed to drive in the United States without the government’s permission.
The argument that will be deployed to prevent the VF3 from being offered for sale here is the same one that’s been used here for decades to prevent cars like the VSP cars (and countless other small cars) from being sold here.
It is that such vehicles aren’t “safe.”
It is an absurd argument, in the first place, because these vehicles are so slow it’s hard to get hurt driving one. The VSPs have top speeds around 30 MPH, which is fast enough for city driving – and slow enough that if you do wreck, the chances of being hurt are much less than they would be if you had been driving a $50,000 Tesla at Ludicrous Speed.
It is hard to drive faster than a VSP car can go in the city – and it is often illegal.
Washington, DC, for instance, instituted a city-wide 25 MPH speed limit on most surface street back in 2022. Of what use is a vehicle that can accelerate to 60 MPH in 3 seconds on such streets? Once you’re on the highway, maybe. But not everyone needs a highway car. Or a car that can get to 60 in 3 seconds.
And not many can afford the $50,000-plus it costs to buy such a car.
Many could probably afford a car like the VF3 or – even better – a VSP car. But they are not allowed to buy such cars, which cuts to the bone of the “safety” argument that has prevented such cars from being available – that is, legal – for sale in this country:
How did the federal government acquire this power to not allow people to buy cars they can afford, that suit their particular needs? How did the government transition from being the mechanism for dealing with people who hurt other people into a mechanism for preventing people from hurting themselves?
Even when they haven’t?
Driving a very small, very light little car does not mean you’re going to crash it. It does not mean you’ll be hurt by driving it. You might be, of course. Anything is possible. Especially if you try hard enough. And you might also fall off a ladder, trip in the shower or smash your thumb with a hammer. Maybe the government ought to not allow us to buy ladders or hammers – or take showers. It would amount to the same thing based on the the same effronterous assertion that our betters in government know best.
Just like mother – but sans the genuine warmth of parental instinct.
There is also a bitter irony here – as regards the VF3. Which American buyers will likely never see. It is that this is an EV that aligns with the narrative behind the pushing of battery-powered devices. It requires fewer raw materials to make – and less energy to power. Put another way, it causes less “carbon” to be generated, which you’d think would be desirable – if indeed a “crisis” were brewing that was being caused by too much “carbon” abounding.
But never mind that.
The VF3 – and the VSP – are not going to be allowed precisely because they might allow for more people to own and drive a car. Especially young, first-time buyers.
The way to prevent that from happening is to assure them they are being kept “safe” – from cars they might be able to afford and would probably like to drive.
If they were allowed to.
. . .
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Putting a child on a leash is abuse, and leads to this:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=abu+graib+torture+leash&t=ffab&atb=v387-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images
When you already live in a police state, try not to make kids into future abusive authoritarians.
Yeah: I used to think the same thing regarding little boys on leashes. (Which is, of course, what it is…) My brother in law and his wife even had my nephew on one when they visited us and we went to Disneyland. The boy was about 4, I think, and the SECOND his parents took their eyes off him HE BOLTED! I had never seen anything like it. He didnt just wander, he RAN! So, imagine in Disneyland, with a 4yr old boy who is maybe waist high, taking off into the crowds! After I did see that, I did not question their motives or reasoning. However, to do that to a kid who does not actively bolt, is rather cruel.
The Vinfast VF-3 is what you’d get if you crossed a Toyota Land Cruiser with a Scion iQ got together and had a love child!
Makes me think about electrifying an old Geo Metro.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=electric+geo+metro+motor&t=ffab&atb=v387-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images
And you only need 50 hp DC electric motor – bolted to the transaxle. And only 1 engine mount modification.
I’m not sure about the gearing. I suppose you keep the 5 speed.
Just imagine if Elon put some engineers, a 70cc Honda generator and modern materials on that project. A $10,000 90s Geo hybrid.
This makes me want to de electrify the Vietnamise car. Put in just about any modern powerplant in it. And Go . I heard someone did an LS swap on a Tesla sedan.
From Eric: “How did the federal government acquire this power to not
allow people to buy cars they can afford, that suit their particular needs?”
Answer: Unconstitutionally.
Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States
by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved
to the States respectively, or to the people.”
If the Constitution is meaningless, then vote it out of existence,
and formally recognize the current U.S dictatorship.
Heil, mein Führer!
Eric,
I have a couple of thoughts about this article. One is about the DC speed limit. The other is about the VF3.
The last time I drove in DC years ago, the traffic was so bad I’d have felt fortunate if I could’ve DONE 25 MPH! Seriously, DC traffic is such a nightmare that even doing the city’s PSL is cause to celebrate.
Secondly, if the VF3 were available, I’d consider it. It’s PERFECT for me! I do mostly city and suburban driving. If I get on the highway, it’s normally for short distances of less than 20 miles; with traffic, particularly peak hours traffic, I don’t go over 65 when I am on the highway. I don’t do road trips very often. And, I don’t normally carry passengers-not human ones, anyway; if I have any passengers with me, it’s one of my cats in a carrier to visit the vet. The VF3 would be perfect for the vast majority of my trips. Thanks to Uncle, I can’t buy it here.
You know, I wish I COULD BUY a small, two seater vehicle of any kind here! I’m aware of the Mazda Miata, but that’s not really practical. I was just on Vinfast’s website, and all they’re offering here are five or more seat SUV/crossovers here. That’s too big for my needs! Even the disappearing sedan and hatchback with four seats is too big.
Amen, Mark –
In a free market, small, simple and cheap EVs would be a great alternative to traditional cars for many people. Instead, we’re being pushed into overpriced, high-performance EVs that most of us can’t afford – and which many of us would very much like to have an alternative to.
I think the Smart car fits the bill of what you say. Perfect city car. Also, I had seen tons of itty bitty cars when I was in Rome. Those would work too. Problem, (if you can call it that) is that the USA is so big. So, anything outside of the city-proper you can have a larger, more capable car
VinFast will probably be North Carolina’s biggest economic development boondoggle in history. NC has a habit of paying companies to be their friend and it almost always crashes. This crap has been going on for decades. Some of us remember the Dell Computer debacle. That mess will be views as a great move by comparison.
Gov. Roy Cooper probably thinks a hooker will love you in the morning as well.
https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-vietnam-electric-car-plant-93716679715dd64608f744154e532d5b
Nicht so schnell!
In the US alone 135 people die each day from injuries involving car collisions, a known known. If a jetliner would crash once a day killing all on board, nobody would fly.
If everybody were driving a small, lightweight automobile that has a top speed of 100 kph, there would be fewer chances of accidents, the danger on the roadways would decrease.
The safest form of mobility is walking, nobody behind the wheel, can’t have a car.
People get hurt, accidents happen, then there are traffic fatalities. No cars, no accidents on the highways.
It is wiser and better to not have automobiles, people end up dying on the highways.
Time to get real, it’s not your way anymore. Everywhere you go there are dangerous circumstances surrounding your every move.
Lewiston, Maine is the latest place where your life can end because some nut with a rifle goes postal.
Sell your car at cargurus and see how much you can get for it. Plenty of older cars for sale for less than 6,000 USD if you see the sale prices at cargurus, must be a glut of used cars out there, seems so, anywho. Difficult to sell a car that few want, but it might be a good idea.
Might want to think about buying a handy weapon for some real protection. Battle axes are obsolete, extremely loud noises can work, be psychologically damaging, bright light can make you reel, the concussion from a big bomb will deafen you, your ears will bleed.
You just never know what might happen next. Someday you might have to break into a run going as fast as you can.
Orwell
We’re loved everywhere we go… we got a genuine Indian guru who’s teaching us a better way – Dr. Hook and His Medicine Show, Cover of the Rolling Stone
nobody would fly…..coming soon….thanks to the marxist globalists running the planet…ban all cars and close all airports….just to the slave class off course….travel while you can…ending soon for the slaves….off to the 15 min city/prison….walking only….but the marxist elites get to keep their 300 foot yachts, private jets, Ferrari’s and ten mansions……
“In the US alone 135 people die each day from injuries involving car collisions, a known known. If a jetliner would crash once a day killing all on board, nobody would fly.
If everybody were driving a small, lightweight automobile that has a top speed of 100 kph, there would be fewer chances of accidents, the danger on the roadways would decrease.”
People have long decided that the risks associated with driving a personal vehicle each and every day are acceptable. The reason that 50,000 deaths a year on an airplane would be unacceptable is that people would not accept that for airplanes is that not everyone flies in plane every day.
There is no evidence that adhering to a particular top speed would measurably reduce fatalities. Fatalities are lowest when people are able to travel up to the 85th percentile speed on a particular stretch of road. The 85th percentile on today’s interstates is around 80 mph, regardless of the state or the speed limit. (It might be 82 mph in 75 mph states and 80 for 70 and 65 mph states.)
In speed limited trucks, no one has done a conclusive study that proves that top speed limiters work to reduce accidents, injuries or fatalities. If they have, it has probably been cherry picked, misreported or gaslit. For instance, if they don’t lie about the results, it may show that non limited trucks have more accidents per mile than limited ones. The thing is, non limited trucks are typically found in states where distances are longer to emergency medical care and to tow trucks that can remove the accident fromt the road ways, all resulting in a naturally higher accident rate.
The whole idea of speed limited should be greeted with a collective no and the issue of “higway safety” greeting with the same yawn and dismissal we receive from politicians. Or and outwardly hostile, who the f cares?
What’s the difference in risk between driving these little cars surrounded by steel vs riding a motorcycle? Whoops, said the quiet part out loud, soon there will be neither since one is currently outlawed so will be other very soon.
We all know why they’re not permitted. Because the first time some damn fool wins a Darwin Award by running it out on the freeway in a snowstorm the “news” will make an example out of him (or, more likely her, the cute white girl who TikToks how hard math and physics are). Oh we all know that idiots either learn quickly or are dispatched to the heavenly realms, sometimes with the physical scars of the education, but still, action must be taken! Prevention is preferable (and cheaper… except when it is not) than a cure!
Meanwhile, off-road vehicles like Polaris (but they’re not cheap either) side by sides are driven all over the southwest, on farms, and even around town with none finding their way to the freeway. They’re a niche product even though they could be the answer to traffic congestion in the cities, being about 1/3 the footprint of a highway-capable vehicle. The “Smart” being an exception, but it was also unsuccessful in the US, in no small part to the cost/benefit when compared to a Toyota Camary.
RK,
Just had a brainwave.
Sell off-road vehicles. Also sell “upgrade kits” with turn signals etc., maybe basic safety belts if needed etc.
Once it’s street legal take it to the DMV to get it inspected & a vin assigned.
You’re legal & just made an end run around most of the saaafety & glowbull warming crowd.
No Claymores, no seatbelt buzzers, no catalytic converters, no overly thick A pillars or backup cams
The amount of money being distributed from the gov’t to cronies to prop up money losing EeeeeVeeee makers is staggering.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-climate-czar-quietly-met-flailing-ev-company-dependent-taxpayer-handouts
From link:
Biden appointed Podesta in September 2022 to lead the White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation. Among its main tasks, Podesta’s office has begun implementing programs in the IRA, Democrats’ $739 billion climate and tax bill which enables the government to distribute more than $350 billion worth of loans and grants to green energy projects nationwide.
Well, Podesta has the largest slush fund, un-appropriated, probably in American history. As soon as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed, Biden and company announced it was actually an investment in green energy and yet it’s not appropriated to anything,” Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power the Future, told Fox News Digital. “So, it makes sense that Rivian and other failing green energy companies are knocking on John Podesta’s door.”
According to the records, Podesta privately met with Rivian Automotive CEO Robert “RJ” Scaringe; the company’s senior policy director, Chris Nevers; its senior public policy manager, Corey Ershow; and Izzy Klein, a lobbyist for the EV maker, at the White House in June. It is unclear what Rivian officials discussed with Podesta, and both the company and the White House didn’t respond to requests for comment.
If Eric and the regular commenters on this site had power to run the fedgov for a quarter, 3 short months, individual freedom could take hold again and the US branch of the Deep State could be dealt a near fatal blow.
Your comments make my heart sing.
I salute you all. 👍 Let freedom reign.
Thanks, John!
I’ll keep on being the collectivists’ party pooper for as long as I am able!
We should all buy land in the same place, and start our own country.
Might I suggest East West Virginia?
To remain free such a place must have a coastal port for free trade to flourish without land based blockade.
Russia understands this issue very well.
Coastal states are not bastions of Freedom as we know it.
It would certainly be infiltrated and undermined by fedgov agents within hours.
It’s like driving a damn phone booth.
Perhaps the VF3 is the electric car that the so-called “big-three” should have offered. Just imagine the demand if the VF3 were allowed to be sold in the U.S. If some presently unknown presidential candidate could get behind this, it alone might carry them to the White House and help to eject the hideous residents we have there and in the administrative agencies. Some years ago I recall a rock ‘n roller who announced, perhaps only in jest, a plan to run for president on a platform of free gas for everyone. I thought such a platform might work then. Like the VF3, it probably still could. Maybe someone should try both.
Hi Bill,
I’ve argued for years that – given the limitations of EVs – the only way they make sense as transportation is to focus on short-hop/low-speed minimalist transportation. There is a crying need for this – and EVs like the VF3 would fill it. But that would result in young/first-time drivers being able to buy (and wanting to drive) cars. And that’s really the “problem” here.
You’re on to something. EV’s might work in cities only because gas stations are also sparse in the cities. Whereas, it seems that every grifting developer and landlord wants to put charging stations nearby. They may reverse that once car ownership in cities becomes prevalent.
It’s absurd. We are supposed to believe FedGov is oh so concerned about our safety, while the only thing it’s truly good at is killing people? Witness the Vaxx. Witness the US being at war for all but 15 years of its existence. 5 of those years killing 650,000 Americans for not wanting to play with it anymore. FedGov is not our friend. Nor does it care about our safety. It cares about our obedience.
The U.S. military is the enforcement arm of the globalist technocrats.
Watch: Zennials Are Terrified Of Military Draft As War Looms
The irony and hypocrisy is dripping across social media as zennials slowly begin to realize that the consequences of their support for establishment elitism….globalist/marxists…. might come back to bite them in the ass.
Keep in mind that this is the generation most inclined to vote for Joe Biden and his ilk, and the generation most inclined to rabidly support war against Russia in Ukraine.
These were the same people clamoring for hundreds of billions of dollars in American weapons and funding to be sent to Ukraine to prolong a losing war leading to the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian draftees.
These were the exact same people that applauded the argument that sacrificing drafted Ukrainian troops in an ideological proxy conflict with Russia was “cheaper” and more efficient than sending American troops to fight. Now, when they are faced with the possibility of being drafted into a different foreign quagmire, their blood thirst has suddenly abated.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-zennials-are-terrified-military-draft-war-looms
Now that the fallacy of student loan forgiveness has been exposed, reality is smacking a lot of younger people in the face for the first time since the 2020 election.
I’ve seen a lot of signs lately that the resumption of $80 billion in student loan interest being extracted from the economy every year is starting to hit home, starting with the video game consoles once again being available in stores since the first week of July.
Reality’s a bitch.
Sooner or later everyone has to learn that, or else suffer the consequences of their failure to do so.
I don’t want the war part, but if these dweebs somehow end up in boot camp I’d like to pop some popcorn & watch the show. If they end up in combat we’ll definitely lose, though.
> Keep in mind that this is the generation most inclined to vote for Joe Biden and his ilk, and the generation most inclined to rabidly support war against Russia in Ukraine.
They’re getting what they voted for, good and hard.
2023 VinFast VF8 First Drive: Return to Sender
The 2023 VinFast VF8 is nowhere near ready for public consumption, yet it’s already being delivered to customers.
Whenever VinFast decides to open up sales, the VF8 Standard Edition Eco Version will start at $49,000 and the VF8 Standard Edition Plus Version at $56,000, plus a currently unknown destination charge.
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2023-vinfast-vf8-electric-suv-first-drive-review/
VinFast signs 27 potential U.S. dealers in shift to third-party sales
Vietnamese EV maker VinFast is planning several waves of dealers across the U.S. as it launches models and builds a factory in North Carolina.
https://www.autonews.com/dealers/vinfast-turns-us-car-dealers-speed-its-rollout
VinFast: Vietnam EV maker valued at more than Ford or GM
Aug 16, 2023That gave VinFast a stock market valuation of $85bn, much higher than Ford’s $48bn and GM’s $46bn. It comes as motor industry giants and newer manufacturers fight for a slice of the EV market.
VinFast is a member of Vingroup – the largest private corporation in Vietnam. We have become the #1 car seller in all of our competing segments within just 21 months of launching in Vietnam and we will launch our smart EVs globally in 2022.
Vietnam has a lower labor cost then China, so might be more competitive on price….
VinFast Auto—the electric vehicle maker controlled by Vietnam’s richest person, Pham Nhat Vuong—has signed a standby equity subscription agreement to sell as much as $1 billion of the company’s shares to Yorkville Advisors, a hedge fund based in New Jersey.
MT scoped out one of six of its newest showrooms that opened on July 14 in California. Located prominently in Santa Monica,
‘Just like mother – but sans the genuine warmth of parental instinct.’ — eric
‘The loveless pity of the welfare state,’ as Maggie Thatcher quipped (probably — it’s nigh impossible to dredge up old quotes on dumbed-down, Woked-up Evil Google now).
Beware, though, when Big Gov pivots from nannying us about saaaaaaafety, to recklessly stoking world war by tendentiously intervening in a bloody squabble among quarreling middle eastern tribes.
They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger or honour, who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
Their doors are shut in the evening; and they know no songs.
— G K Chesterton, The Secret People