Photo: VinFast
VinFast is moving fast in what it considers as its main markets. In the U.S., the company will have a factory in North Carolina. In Europe, there are currently no announced plans for factories, only for sales. To get them going in the region, the Vietnamese carmaker made a deal with FCA Bank to start leasing the VF 8 and VF 9.
If you did not connect the dots here, FCA was the company that merged with PSA to form Stellantis. This is probably another legacy from Michael Lohscheller, who used to be Opel’s CEO before he joined VinFast. He remained at the Vietnamese company only for five months. Lohscheller now works for Nikola.
The FCA Bank was a joint venture between FCA and Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance. On July 19, 2019, the parties agreed to extend their partnership until December 2024. With the VinFast deal, Crédit Agricole disclosed it would buy 100% of the bank’s capital. In other words, VinFast is the first example that FCA Bank will not restrict to providing credit to Stellantis products.
The bank currently has over 1.7 million clients across 18 European countries. VinFast said that this network will help it expand while still offering customers a known entity to take care of credit for them. Considering that VinFast vehicles will not be exactly affordable, that is more than welcome.
In Germany, the VF 8 will be available for €499 ($528 at the current exchange rate) per month in 37-month plans after the payment of the first installment: €8,650 ($9,152). Also in that country, the VF 9 will require €699 ($740) per month in plans with the same extension after the first installment of €11,350 ($12,008).
The company also disclosed its plans for France and the Netherlands, which you can check in our gallery. Unfortunately, prices are higher for customers in these countries. These conditions are only valid for the VinFast Exclusive Program, which is taking pre-orders on the European website with a fully refundable fee of €150 ($158.70). The program ends on May 30.
At this point, VinFast will need to focus more on presenting itself to buyers in Europe than on how these customers will pay for its cars. We are yet to hear about dealers or direct sales, and only a few journalists have had limited access to a VF 8 prototype. We wonder how many reservations it has received so far: the company did not disclose that number. It would be interesting to have it when the VinFast Exclusive Program ends.
The FCA Bank was a joint venture between FCA and Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance. On July 19, 2019, the parties agreed to extend their partnership until December 2024. With the VinFast deal, Crédit Agricole disclosed it would buy 100% of the bank’s capital. In other words, VinFast is the first example that FCA Bank will not restrict to providing credit to Stellantis products.
The bank currently has over 1.7 million clients across 18 European countries. VinFast said that this network will help it expand while still offering customers a known entity to take care of credit for them. Considering that VinFast vehicles will not be exactly affordable, that is more than welcome.
In Germany, the VF 8 will be available for €499 ($528 at the current exchange rate) per month in 37-month plans after the payment of the first installment: €8,650 ($9,152). Also in that country, the VF 9 will require €699 ($740) per month in plans with the same extension after the first installment of €11,350 ($12,008).
The company also disclosed its plans for France and the Netherlands, which you can check in our gallery. Unfortunately, prices are higher for customers in these countries. These conditions are only valid for the VinFast Exclusive Program, which is taking pre-orders on the European website with a fully refundable fee of €150 ($158.70). The program ends on May 30.
At this point, VinFast will need to focus more on presenting itself to buyers in Europe than on how these customers will pay for its cars. We are yet to hear about dealers or direct sales, and only a few journalists have had limited access to a VF 8 prototype. We wonder how many reservations it has received so far: the company did not disclose that number. It would be interesting to have it when the VinFast Exclusive Program ends.
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