VinFast is, by all accounts, not a particularly serious automaker. Sure, many of its cars are genuinely nice-looking machines, but that curb appeal starts to wear off when you actually climb behind the wheel — the vehicles are simply not ready for prime time. Of course, rather than address these faults, VinFast seems intent on barreling forward.
The company is shuffling its C-suite, getting into dealerships, and allegedly having critical influencers arrested by Vietnamese authorities — really, doing everything except improving the single car it actually sells in the States. Now, having learned seemingly no lessons from the launch of the VF8, the company wants to enter the extremely competitive midsize pickup market with its new VF Wild concept.
The VF Wild, which debuted at this year’s CES alongside the teeny VF3, is an all-electric pickup aimed at the midsize market — a segment which already holds the GMC Canyon, Chevy Colorado, Ford Ranger, Toyota Tacoma, and Honda Ridgeline. Despite the promise of an electric Tacoma to come, no manufacturer has yet put an EV on sale to fight for those highly prized buyers.
Perhaps VinFast thinks that features will make the difference, with its promises of an all-glass roof, cameras in place of side-view mirrors, and a bed that seems to extend on top of the rear seats when they’re folded down. I wouldn’t personally count those features as a selling point when they come from a company that can’t make reliable turn signals, but perhaps I’m asking too much.
VinFast says the VF Wild’s design is “inspired by the flowing motion of a superhero’s cape in the wind.” It might take a superhero, rather than a pickup truck, to turn VinFast’s prospects around here in the States. It might take a whole league of them.
