VinFast Auto celebrates the grand opening of its store in Santa Monica on Thursday, July 14, 2022 in Santa Monica, Calif. Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast says it has opened its first Canadian showroom as it prepares for a wider expansion into the market. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Casey Rodgers/AP Images for VinFast
TORONTO – Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast says it has opened its first Canadian showroom as it prepares for a wider expansion into the market.
The company says its first store is in Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre, while it plans to open seven more stores in the country by year end including at the CF Carrefour Laval shopping centre in Laval, Que. and the Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver, B.C.
VinFast, a subsidiary of the Vingroup conglomerate, started taking online reservations from Canadians for its vehicles in March, with first deliveries at its showrooms expected around the end of this year or early 2023.
The company offers two models, with its 471-kilometre range compact SUV, the VF8, starting from $64,990, or $54,990 with a battery subscription, while its full-sized VF9 with up to 594 kilometres of range starts at $103,790.
Federal EV subsidies are available for vehicles with a base model price of less than $55,000, or $65,000 with higher priced trim levels, while Quebec has a limit of $65,000 and British Columbia has a $70,000 limit for larger vehicles including SUVs.
The launch of VinFast comes as wait times for many electric vehicles in Canada stretch out into months and in some cases years as automakers work to make up for supply-chain related shortfalls in production.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2022.
