North Carolina Sues VinFast over an Unbuilt Factory
Key takeaways
- EV maker Vin Fast broke ground on its factory in 2023 and didn't build anything.
- Yesterday, North Carolina attorney general Jeff Jackson announced a lawsuit against Vietnamese carmaker VinFast over its failure to build a factory in Chatham County, south of Raleigh.
- We were perhaps skeptical of those ambitions after driving the company's debut offering, the VF8.
Why this matters: an automotive development that could shape industry direction or buying decisions.
EV maker Vin Fast broke ground on its factory in 2023 and didn't build anything. North Carolina wants its money back.
Nick Ut|Getty Images North Carolina is suing Vin Fast over its unbuilt factory.The suit aims to recover reimbursements for site preparation as well as reclaim the site itself, in Chatham County.Vin Fast cleared the site in 2023 and was supposed to have the factory built by July 2026 and employ 1750 people by the end of the year. Yesterday, North Carolina attorney general Jeff Jackson announced a lawsuit against Vietnamese carmaker VinFast over its failure to build a factory in Chatham County, south of Raleigh. The suit is aimed at recovering money—North Carolina reimbursed VinFast for the costs of prepping the site, which is all that's happened since the land was cleared and graded in 2023—and reclaiming the site itself. It's a sizable parcel, given that VinFast's plans called for a factory spanning more than 800,000 square feet.
We were perhaps skeptical of those ambitions after driving the company's debut offering, the VF8. North Carolina became increasingly skeptical as VinFast repeatedly pushed back its timeline for the factory groundbreaking. Under the terms of its deal with the state, North Carolina would provide $450 million to support site preparation, and VinFast would have the factory built by July 2026 and employ 1750 people by the end of the year. Given that it's nearly June and the site is still dirt, North Carolina decided that a factory will not, in fact, be built by July and moved to dissolve the deal.