Attracted by a $ 20.5 million tax credit, the Vietnamese automaker VinFast announced that its U.S. headquarters will be located in Los Angeles, a move that builds on the company’s initial investment of $ 200 million in California.
Together, these investments are expected to create up to 1,000 jobs statewide over the next five years.
The 15,000 square foot facility at 12777 W. Jefferson Blvd. in the Playa Vista area of LA, will include a management team with plans to hire more than 400 workers there and at its LA regional office over the next several years.
VinFast was one of the few foreign companies to have obtained the Competing California Tax Credit given by the Office of the Governor for Business and Economic Development.
The $ 20.5 million business tax credit is the largest CalCompetes tax credit ever given to an automaker and one of the 10 biggest awards given to a business in the nearly 10 years of program history.
VinFast is also investing in regional offices, a call center and a network of storefronts to help present the brand and products to US customers and expand investment plans going forward.
The automaker has a research and development office in San Francisco with 50 employees and plans to open 35 U.S. showrooms and service centers in California this year, according to Just automatic, an online research and news portal for the automotive industry.
VinFast sold around 30,000 vehicles last year, the company said, and earlier this year it forecasted sales of more than 45,000 units in 2021.
Founded in 2017 by billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, Vinfast started delivering gasoline cars to Vietnamese consumers with BMW licensed engines in 2019. Vuong, who is also chairman of the parent company. Vingroup, said at the end of the year that he would back the company’s U.S. ambitions with $ 2 billion of his own fortune, according to Bloomberg.
Van Anh Nguyen, CEO of the company’s U.S. operations, said California – and Southern California in particular – is fast becoming the epicenter of advanced transportation, thanks to “forward thinking ideas, an abundance of talented workers and the passion to make transportation electrification a reality. “
“We are delighted to make Los Angeles the permanent home of VinFast US,” Nguyen said in a statement.
Company set to unveil two electric SUVs this month Los Angeles Auto Show as the company takes its first steps into the rapidly growing electric vehicle market in North America. The show runs from Friday November 19 to Sunday November 28.
VinFast VF e35 and VF e36 are equipped with a variety of smart features including lane assist, collision warning, driver monitoring, fully automated parking, voice assistance and trade services electronic.
Vehicle pre-orders will begin in the first half of 2022 and deliveries are expected by the end of the year, company officials said.
The company’s intelligent electric vehicles are in step with the direction the industry is taking.
In a recent executive order, President Joe Biden set a goal that half of all new car sales will be zero-emission vehicles by 2030. California requires all new vehicle sales to be zero. zero emissions by 2035.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said VinFast was welcome, noting LA is “a place where companies come to test, prove and launch new technology.”
“We are very proud to welcome VinFast to our city as we continue to pave the way for a better connected, cleaner and more sustainable future of transportation,” Garcetti said in a statement.
Founded in 2017, VinFast has an automotive manufacturing complex in Hai Phong, Vietnam, where operations are 90% automated. The facilities are capable of producing up to 250,000 cars and up to 500,000 electric scooters per year.
