VinFast starts US deliveries of its VF9 3-row SUV, and we got a quick drive in it

VinFast delivered its first VF9 vehicles to customers in Los Angeles yesterday, kicking off US deliveries of the new 3-row electric SUV.

VinFast is a relatively new EV brand, founded in Vietnam in 2017, under the umbrella of massive Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup. It started delivering cars to the US in 2023 with its VF8 mid-size SUV.

The VF9 is its three-row large SUV, which has been delivering in Vietnam since the 2023 model year, and also in some other Southeast Asian and a few European markets. But now it’s ready to start delivering the VF9 here in the US, and it started last night in Los Angeles.

VinFast held a small event at its US headquarters in Los Angeles to deliver the first 8 VF9s to the US market, and invited us out to the event and to have a quick look at the car.

VinFast told us that it currently has 36 dealerships in 15 states, with 13 company owned stores in California. So deliveries won’t just start right away in California, but other territories as well. However, VinFast couldn’t provide us an estimate of what the delay before delivery would be if ordering a vehicle today.

VinFast trim levels

The VF9 comes in two trim levels, Eco and Plus. The Eco model starts at $69,800 with the Plus version $4k more at $73,800. First deliveries will start with the Plus model, with the Eco coming a few months later.

But despite those somewhat high starting prices, VinFast is also offering a limited-time promotion for the first 100 vehicle deliveries to lease the Plus for $529/mo with $2,000 down. And since the VF8 has seen some really great lease deals, we could imagine the VF9 might get the same treatment after deliveries start happening in earnest.

The trim levels don’t differ significantly in drive capabilities, with the same battery and motor between the two. See the full spec sheet here.

The main differences are in a bunch of additional interior comforts on the Plus, like ventilated massaging seats, 2nd row seat heaters, seat and steering wheel position memory, rear LCD display, panoramic roof and a subwoofer. The Plus also has fog lights and cornering lights.

However, the Plus also has lower range at 291 miles instead of 330 miles, primarily due to larger 21in wheels compared to the base 20in wheels. Wheels can make a huge difference in aerodynamic efficiency, especially with different wheel cover designs.

The Plus is also about 100lbs heavier than the Eco, and can come in a 6-seat “captain’s chair” configuration, whereas the Eco only comes in a 7-seat layout.

Extremely quick first drive

We got a chance to drive the VF9 very briefly, but given that it was in the middle of LA rush hour traffic and only a few miles, this barely even qualifies for “first drive” status.

However, the vehicle felt quite spacious inside – as one would expect from a large SUV. We only sat in the seats for a few minutes, but the seat material was passably comfortable (not like the outstandingly comfortable EX90). The third row has a huge amount of headroom, but little legroom – you’re basically sitting on the floor back there, and it takes some work to get out of it, too.

The drive software does seem to have matured compared to the previous VF8 version I drove. That VF8 had horrendous throttle lag, especially when starting from 0mph, but I didn’t experience that quite so much here in the VF9. It felt better. They’re making progress.

The throttle pedal is a little weirdly jumpy though in sport mode, so despite that I set almost all EVs to sport mode and just leave it there, this might be a car that I’d drive in standard or eco more often. And hope that Vinfast continues to tweak the drive software to make it feel a little more refined. But that said, again, I’d like a chance to test this more and get a feel for it.

Power was good though not amazing, it’s a large car after all so comfort is going to be more of a premium than speed.

I like VinFast’s user interface well enough – it’s pretty well laid out, it doesn’t suffer from the lag that some other UIs do, and you can always escape to CarPlay or Android Auto if that’s your preference. Though the gathered media did experience some random faults on the 3 early-production press cars we had access to for the night, like a faulty anti-window-pinch sensor and rear hatch closure sensor.

All in all, after the relatively poor overall reviews for the VF8 and a middling experience myself when I drove one, I came away pleasantly surprised by the VF9, with a vehicle that was nicer than I expected on this very short drive. I’m still not a large SUV guy and would love to see some of VinFast’s smaller vehicles here (the VF7 is coming to the US, but I’d like to see the even-smaller ones), but as long as the arrow keeps going in the right direction and VinFast keeps improving, there could be a nice future here for Vietnam.

And that’s the thing… I really want VinFast to succeed. I like the idea of having another country join the international stage of auto manufacturing, and it would be great for Vietnam to gain some chops in the realm of complex manufacturing. The country already does well in textiles and electronics… but cars are a whole different thing. This drive was too short to draw many conclusions, but VinFast does seem to be improving from the short experience we had.

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