VinFast North American CEO discusses groundbreaking set for Friday at new Chatham County site
To stand here seeing all this seeing what's happening and
what's going to happen Friday I mean what's this what's
this feel like to finally be at this point Wow
You know I I've been like living like a dream
over the past days as well
And even though we were so so busy preparing for
this event not only that over the past weeks and
months we've been working very hard working with our contractors
partners preparing for the for the start of construction
So you know feeling great feeling busy but it's great
and very very looking forward for the Friday event
What will we see start happening here as early as
Friday I guess Yes it's Friday
So we will be organizing the groundbreaking ceremony here right
here on Friday July 28th at 9 a.m. That is
where we are informing the whole world that we will
you know officially start the constructions of the factory
Where do you think stand with permits and all of
that to start that construction Well we were all permitted
The latest permit that we got from Chatham County is
a foundation permit that has allowed us to start the
construction and we got it
So we got everything for us to to start the
construction of the factory
You know this has been a long road there have
been road bumps and delays along the way
What has that been like to overcome some of those
challenges Well actually I would not call it a delay
because you know when we announced that like literally more
than a year ago when we saw the mou we
think that we can do everything within that timeline
It's very compressed and very aggressive timeline
And right after signing the mou we start we started
sitting down and looking looking at all of the timing
in details and working with our partners as well
And we realized that we needed more time to on
all of the administrative procedures permitting selecting the partners the
technology partners and all those things
That's why we came out and we inform people of
the more realistic uh timing and now is 2025 we
will start productions right here
You know it looks to look here now it looks
like how in the world in 2025 would this all
get done How committed and confident are you that this
can be built and cars start rolling off the line
here
We are confident because you know we've done that we've
been there we've done that with our plant in Vietnam
And actually things can do in parallel as well
You know for example why we are building the factories
you know our technology partners can work on the equipment
and then we have enough time for installation and commissioning
as well
And at the same time we started working on getting
the human resources and people trained and prepared as well
So many things are happening at the same time
So we don't have to do like things in sequence
but things can do at the same time
When do you hope to start hiring some of those
people and training them for these jobs Well you know
over the past year um you know that we've been
discussing with community college here and we've been meeting with
a lot of partners here as well
So we are working closely with them to really prepare
for the curriculum for the people
These are the people and the students that we we
need and then we ask them to train for us
Um and then for the for the hiring I think
majorities of the floor the shop workers will be start
hiring maybe of next year or beginning of 2025
Usually we need to train even they were trained at
the schools at the vocational schools or community college
We need people to be trained at our plant at
least at least three months in advance 3 to 6
months in advance before we can put them into production
lines
We know too
And you know very well that there's been some some
reviews of the cars once they arrived here in the
US
What do you say to people who I still wonder
you know is this going to be a success Are
these cars going to take off here in the US
You know what Because I was there at that reviews
by by the media and if you are interested we
can share like how many what we call maybe negative
reviews versus the positive or the neutral because we we
organize that event for the full week
And after we received all of those negative reviews we
divided them into uh different groups
So like what they are um about and mostly they
are about also that the customer experience or customer expectations
you know that this is what the customer expectation and
some of them would be like about the software and
some about this
So basically we categorize them into each category and we
are taking actions on that and you know what we
are working hard to improve based on the feedback that
we receive and stay tuned
We will inform the people that how we are taking
actions on those on those feedbacks and customers feedback commitments
on three things remain the same in all cases it
number one is always a quality and premium product
So that is that is our number one commitment
Number two is we want to come in with affordable
and flexible sales price so that you know we want
many more customers can convert into evs and that is
the way that we contribute to electrification
And number three it's excellent customer service
So we are working hard to achieve those three objectives
that we have
Um We know we all know that it is challenging
but we are on it and we committed to it
You you worked in the factory yourself you stand I
am actually a factory person
Do you stand here Now can you envision the first
cars rolling off the line here Yeah 2025
And this is on the right that you can see
right here is our general assembly and in 2025 people
will witness the first car running out the production line
of the general assembly shop
The car is made in USA and made by American
people right here
You have a good vision
I mean it's hard for me to Yeah because uh
this is one
So for there you can see that we have press
shop paint from the pet shop you have the you
know coming out from the pet shop and then coming
to body shop
So putting the pan together um that is um body
shop and then body shop and then to paint
So after the painted body and then that will be
um transfer by conveyor into general assembly and all of
the paths like coming from the whole world
And a lot of them were coming from uh North
America because we are working on building also the supply
chain in North America as well
And then all the paths are coming on together in
general assembly
Um That is a complete car and we're coming out
of the final production line in general assembly
So is it essentially three buildings or is like two
big buildings Now each shop it's it's all building
So each shop is one building but it's connected
So you know you don't have people like bringing and
carrying the painted body from paint shop to the general
assembly that is all conveyor it's automated and you all
are working too with some local companies right For some
of the the infrastructure here
Yes of course of course
That is what we are working on and we have
to and we are working on the local supply chain
here
Um And we're talking to our pot suppliers so that
they can have the productions like nearby or within the
regions or you know within North America
Well some of that construction like you know from stuff
will there be local contractors working in if we want
if we can work with local company we will because
that's the that's the best way
Uh It is also to um the cost as well
So um and like what I just described here is
just the first phase of the you know manufacturing facility
complex here
It's huge
The second phase is coming
And definitely we have a a battery manufacturing or also
the supplier parks where you know local suppliers can also
like you know build their production facilities here as well
So everything is ready here for the ground breaking
Is it Yeah you look at the tents and war
won't be welcoming friends and partners
There will be hundreds a few hundreds of them arriving
here um on Friday
Uh and we will be also expecting um a lot
of V VIP s attending our event as well
So stay tuned
I was just gonna say are there surprises in store
Yeah stay tuned
Come in on Friday and you won't see