Th3 Core

Nearly a thousand Vietnamese EVs are on their way to the US

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/28/23481811/vinfast-vf8-ev-ship-us-electric-specs-price

Note: Eventually they want to make these in NC.

That's more horsepower than I was expecting.  These are interesting times we live in where a Vietnamese company is going to open a car factory in NC.

That sounds really bad especially at those prices.  I hope they can work the bugs out.

Korean cars were bad at first.  Back in the late '70's Buick imported a Korean "Opel".  I never saw a car that rusted out faster, but the price was cheap.  Korean cars, like GM's "Geo" line were known as "60,000 mile cars" because they were either rusting apart or just about dead from falling apart by 60K miles.  Yet the Koreans persisted and now make a pretty good car by all accounts.  So I hope the Vietnamese can work it out too.

>never saw a car that rusted out faster

You didn't check on many Fiats, then.  Only twice, has the US forced a vehicle recall due to excessive corrosion.  Both times it was Fiat-Stellantis. 

The 70s Opel GT was german. Pretty decent car.

German Opels were good cars.  The Korean Opel ran nice when new but just felt cheap.  The doors sounded tinny when you closed them.  And it had quirks, like when running the heater/AC fan had no Off position.  It was always on and blowing.

>Fiat

Yeah you got me on that one.  A friend of mine had 2 Fiats in succession, one was that neat looking wedge sports car (X-19?) and the other was a hatchback copy of VW's Rabbit/Golf.  Nice looking designs but both rusted out by the time he drove them the length of his driveway.  When they ran they handled well - very sporty.  Poor mechanical quality and the rust killed Fiat in the American market.

>rust

Mind, mid to late 1970's American cars also rusted fast (we called them pre-rusted from the factory) but not as fast as the Fiat's and korean pretend Opel's.

Reading that article I was also reminded of Korea's car industry.  By all accounts the first US imports were low quality, but they've caught up over time and some of the stuff they are doing these days are pretty innovative.

All the complaints about the VF8 seem to be due to rushing to market without putting in the time to make sure they systems work.  I guess they figured that it worked out okay for Tesla, but it is 2023 and some well established car companies are producing quality electric cars now.  Coming out with a buggy EV could probably work if they were especially low cost, but $56,000 isn't what i would call a bargain.  I hope they get their act together.  Hopefully they pay more attention to how Hyundai penetrated the US market.