EV underdog VinFast to open first dealership in US
Vietnamese EV maker VinFast has announced that it will open doors to its first dealership in the US, in the same state where it is building a state-of-the-art $4 billion EV factory. The automaker is partnering with North Carolina’s Leith Automotive Group to start selling its fully electric cars in the state.
VinFast has announced a joint partnership with Leith Automotive Group to start selling its vehicles – the VF 8 crossover to start and more models soon thereafter – at a dealership in Carey Auto Park, North Carolina, not far from the EV factory in Chatham County. Leith VinFast, which is what it will be dubbed, will offer sales, repairs, maintenance and parts for VinFast vehicles.
VinFast’s global chief executive told Reuters that the company is switching up its distribution model, which was previously based on Tesla’s direct-to-consumer model, to what it calls a “hybrid” model that includes dealers. North Carolina’s VinFast manufacturing plant is expected to produce as many as 150,000 vehicles annually after it is completed in 2025.
VinFast, which has been delivering batches of cars in California since March, told Reuters that it has received 70 applications from dealers in the US, which means the brand potentially could start distributing its EVs through 125 points of sales around the country once approvals are put in place.
In its home country, VinFast has recently launched a $20,000 electric minicar called the VF 3, and Electrek has reported that the company is considering bringing it to the US, alongside the VF 8 and high-end VF9, which it already sells stateside in small batches. The 2024 VF 8 starts at abut $47K and goes up to about $53K depending on trim and options, with the Eco model offering the highest range at 264 miles per charge.
Electrek’s Take
VinFast, sort of an EV underdog, is landing in the US at a time of high EV pricing pressure coming from heavy hitters like Tesla. And while it has huge global ambitions, sales volumes have been small – so it has a lot to prove. It sold just 11,315 for the first half of 2023, compared to Tesla’s more than 889,000 vehicles in the same period. VinFast has so far sold vehicles in California, where it has 13 showrooms across the state, but data from Experian showed only 237 units had been registered through September, according to CarScoops. It is looking to broaden its footprint in North America and Europe, however, and says it expects to sell 750,00 vehicles a year globally by 2026. Of course, bringing that low-priced minicar to the US could stack the odds in its favor, and Americans love an underdog.
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Amid worldwide protests against Tesla due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement in the company, hackers have released a website with address and contact information of thousands of Tesla owners. And the same hackers say that the only way to get off the list is to prove that you’ve sold your car.
Protests against Tesla started in February, with groups picketing outside stores across North America and elsewhere.
The protesters have been pretty clear in their reasoning why – they’re not fans of Elon Musk and his recent actions.
In case you’ve been under a rock, Musk has been meddling in politics recently, after being radicalized by his twitter feed which he is hopelessly addicted to. It started with a nine-figure bribe to a convicted felon’s presidential campaign, which many thought would produce results in the form of corruption after said felon wandered back into the Oval Office (despite that there exists a clear legal remedy for insurrectionists), and appointed Musk to a fake and redundant government department which has so far expectedly failed to produce any meaningful results.
This meddling is predictably not working out great so far for Tesla, the business which produced the vast majority of Musk’s wealth and which he is still, somehow, the titular leader of.
It turns out, people don’t particularly like it when you’re part of an administration that dedicates itself to poisoning Americans, raising their costs, and harming US industry, among all the other ill-considered actions going on at the federal level. The administration Musk is a part of is actively trying to make EVs more expensive and harder to charge, both of which will harm Tesla – and your air quality.
Even Elon Musk himself acknowledges that these actions are “not good for America or the world” – or at least he did, back before he forgot how climate change works.
The unambiguous Nazi salutes didn’t help either – which were not out of character for Musk, given his history of white supremacist statements and his current support for German neo-Nazis. He has since gone on to agree with a defense of Hitler’s actions in the Holocaust.
All of this has resulted in a huge drop in Tesla popularity, and along with that has come a drop in sales and the aforementioned protests, many of which are being exercised by Tesla owners and EV fans who are dismayed that the electric car company’s leadership has taken such an anti-EV turn.
There are passive protests like Tesla owners debadging their cars, and then the active ones like those who are exercising their First Amendment right to picket outside of Tesla stores.
Musk and the government he’s a part of have responded to these protests in their expected manner: by spreading misinformation with the intent of silencing the protesters’ free speech – a fundamental right which Musk has long shown disdain for.
And then, beyond that, there are… let’s say less accepted forms of protest happening in the US and elsewhere.
Today, we’re seeing a whole new type of protest – in the form of a hacker group which got access to Tesla account data and posted it all online, exposing thousands of Tesla owners’ information on the web.
Tesla owners’ information posted on protest site
The website includes a map and a snarky message stating the site’s intent – claiming that it’s a social media site for Tesla owners, rather than a protest site. But it also says that it encourages “creative expressions of protest that you can execute from the comfort of your own home.” Though, the site also uses a molotov cocktail as a cursor replacement.
Here is the text on the site (the name of the site has been redacted here, because while the information doesn’t seem particularly harmful on its own, given that most of it is public, I’d still rather not be responsible for leading people towards it):
XXXXX is the ultimate hub for enthusiasts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)! Our innovative platform allows users to explore an interactive map of DOGE landmarks.
But that’s not all! We also cater to Tesla Motors owners, providing a comprehensive resource to locate nearby service centers, showrooms, and charging stations—all at their fingertips.
Leveraging our cutting-edge artificial intelligence algorithms, XXXXX goes a step further by connecting like-minded Tesla owners with one another, facilitating a vibrant community through shared contact information.
Join us as we revolutionize the way DOGE fans and Tesla owners connect and explore!
Is XXXXX a protest platform?
If you’re on the hunt for a Tesla to unleash your artistic flair with a spray can, just step outside—no map needed! At XXXXX, we believe in empowering creative expressions of protest that you can execute from the comfort of your own home.
XXXXX neither endorses nor condemns any actions.
Before you embark on any adventure, we highly recommend checking out the No Trace Project.
I want my information removed.
Absolutely! Just provide us with proof that you’ve sold your Tesla.
Email XXXXX. We only accept scanned documents in JPG and PNG formats.
The way that the information was leaked is not immediately apparent, nor does the group make any claims as to how it got the information. It may or may not have even come from Tesla itself, since it includes somewhat random pieces of information for each owner.
The information is categorized under different icons, with designations for Tesla stores, Superchargers, Tesla owners’ cars, and then additional people of interest – which seem to largely be known residence of staffers working at Elon Musk’s bungling government department.
A quick check of the information suggests that it is not complete – there are many Tesla owners who are not listed on the site. And most of the information seems to just be addresses, phone numbers, business names and the like – much of which is already public information. Though there are also some email addresses and social media handles associated with certain entries, which may not be public information.
Also, Tesla locations are listed – such as Superchargers and Tesla stores. These are wholly public information and can be found on Tesla’s website.
Further, some outlets have confirmed that some of the information is inaccurate.
But, if any given Tesla owner is on the list, the site offers a remedy: merely email them with a scanned document proving you sold your car, and you will be removed. We haven’t tried this out to see if it will work or not, but if any owners do, feel free to reach out to us.
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A new era of 3D printing “microfactories” is helping to turn waste plastics into “highly competitive” products fit for use in the construction industry, according to Veena Sahajwalla, professor and founding director of UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre.
Speaking to CNBC’s Mandy Drury at Schneider Electric’s Sydney Innovation Summit on Monday in Australia, Sahajwalla said manufacturers had to direct their thinking around sustainability toward profitability.
“It’s not about saying, well I’m making it because its green. Actually, that should be the last thing. The first thing has to be profitability, does it work? Is it showing the right performance?” she said.
That thinking has pushed SMaRT to build plastic filaments made from 100% waste plastics, sourced from “all kinds of old printers.”
They are built in hyper-localized, heavily automated “microfactories” to produce personalized products.
“If this [waste-made plastic] can now be fed into a 3D printer, can you actually print a whole range of products?” she said.
One such product already made are “clamps” — or blocks — used in building and construction projects.
“Imagine all the building and construction projects where you need plants and imagine if you had to wait a long time to source these parts and components,” said Sahajwalla.
The large outlay on plants during construction projects means companies often purchase them secondhand.
SMaRT’s 3D-printed alternative, built in a Sydney microfactory using plastic filaments made from older, plastic waste, could ultimately lower costs, says Sahajwalla.
“You could literally talk to your local microfactory and say, can I make this at a comparative price and the right kind of performance?”
“This is where microfactory technologies have come in. To really close the gap to between what is seen as a waste on one hand and on the other hand make something that is high performance, high tech and competitively closing the gap.”
Hydrogen revolution?
Autonomous trucks and buses, powered by clean hydrogen-based energy, are on the cusp of hitting the roads, thanks to a technology still in its infancy.
Scott Brown, managing director of pure hydrogen, told CNBC that his firm now has a hydrogen-powered garbage truck in the city of Adelaide emitting “no diesel pollution, which can be detrimental to your health if you breathe it in,” as well as less noise pollution waking residents up during the morning garbage run.
He predicts a drop in fuel cell prices in the coming 10 to 15 years.
Car manufacturers Honda, Toyota and Hyundai have already adopted more fuel cell engineering.
Fuel cells refer to the use of hydrogen or other fuels to produce clean electricity.
“There’s not a lot of material involved. It looks like a PC and you put it into — in our case — a truck or a bus,” Brown said.
Because of its increasingly cost-effective production, fuel cell prices have come down “about 50% in the last three years,” he added.
Brown predicts that clean energy battery cell prices will “fall dramatically” in the coming decade as Chinese companies adopt more hydrogen-powered vehicles.
According to figures released by South Korean analysts SME Research Group in November, sales of hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles in China outnumbered purchases across the world.
Tesla (TSLA) has officially obtained a permit in California to operate an internal fleet for a ride-hailing service, but it’s not for robotaxi yet.
In fact, the automaker hasn’t even applied for an autonomous driving permit yet.
A few weeks ago, it was reported that Tesla had applied for a ride-hailing permit in California.
Even though many linked it to Tesla’s Robotaxi effort, it was specifically for the right to operate an internal fleet of vehicles with drivers to offer a ride-hailing service.
Tesla had already disclosed that it was offering such a service to its employees in the Bay Area.
Now, the CPUC has confirmed that it has approved Tesla’s application (via Reuters):
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said it approved Tesla’s application for a transportation charter-party carrier permit (TCP), a license typically associated with chauffeur-operated services, allowing the company to own and control a fleet of vehicles and transport employees on pre-arranged trips.
After Tesla’s stock crashed 5% today, the automaker’s stock went up 1.3% in aftermarket trading on the news.
The speculation is that this is in anticipation of Tesla launching its “robotaxi service”, but a CPUC spokesperson confirmed that the permit doesn’t allow Tesla to do that and that the automaker has yet to apply for a permit that would enable such a service.
Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that Tesla would launch “unsupervised self-driving in Texas and California in Q2 2025.” That’s within the next 4 months.
However, we suspected that this would not be “unsupervised self-driving’ in customer vehicles like Tesla has been promising since 2016, but an internal fleet with teleoperation support in a geo-fenced area for ride-hailing services, much like Waymo has been doing for years.
Sure enough, Musk confirmed last month that this was the plan for Austin in June. We describe this as a “moving of the goal post” for Tesla.
With the focus on Austin in June, Tesla stopped talking about California, which was announced to happen at the same time as Texas last year.
Currently, the prediction market Polymarket puts the odds of Tesla launching robotaxis in California in 2025 at 29%:
Electrek’s Take
As I previously stated, I believe Tesla will use this permit to expand its existing ride-hailing test program in California to non-employees.
It will use that to iron out the ride-hailing system while it continues to work on its self-driving system, which is obviously the hard part to solve.
That said, I wouldn’t be completely shocked if Tesla launched a “robotaxi” in California this year. It just won’t be what Tesla has been promising for years: customer vehicles built since 2016 would be capable of self-driving at a robotaxi-level (4-5 SAE levels).
Instead, it will be an internal fleet with teleoperation support in a geo-fenced area, much like Waymo has been offering in California, Arizona, and Texas for years.
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