VinFast quietly increases North American vehicle and battery subscription prices, pushing VF9 to over $103K in Canada

VinFast announced North American pricing for its first two electric vehicles (EVs) earlier this year, planning to launch the VF8 before the end of 2022 and the VF9 in early 2023.

Before those first deliveries even begin, the Vietnamese automaker has quietly increased prices for its EVs and its battery subscription plan, with the VF9 now priced above $100,000 in Canada.

VF8 Price Increase

According to the VinFast website, the price of the VF8 in Canada has increased from a base of $51,250 to $54,990, an increase of $3,740.

Similarly in the U.S., the VF8 has increased from $40,700 to $42,200, up $1,500.

Both of these prices are without the battery, which a customer has to purchase a separate monthly subscription for. More details on the battery subscription price changes below.

VinFast does now allow you the option to purchase the car with the battery included in the price however, but it will cost you an extra $10,000 in Canada ($64,990 base price) and $14,800 in the U.S. ($57,000).

VinFast said when they first announced their pricing structure that separating the battery price from the vehicle price helps ease the sticker shock that is often associated with purchasing an EV, and now we can see why.

VF9 Price Increase

The price increase is much more substantial for the larger VF9 electric SUV. The Canadian price has increased from a base of $69,750 $79,990, a whopping $10,240.

Strangely the price increase in the U.S. is not nearly as large, going from $55,500 to $57,500, an increase of just $2,000 in comparison.

Again, the new option of including the battery pushes the price of the VF9 in Canada all the way up to $103,790, and in the U.S. up to $76,000.

VinFast Battery Subscription Price Increase

Previously VinFast was going to offer a cheaper Flexible battery subscription plan (as low as $39 per month) with a monthly mileage limit, along with a more expensive Fixed plan with unlimited mileage.

VinFast has ditched the Flexible plan, and substantially increased the price of the Fixed plan.

In Canada the VF8 Fixed plan now costs $249 (previously $139) and the VF9 Fixed Plan now costs $349 (previously $199).

In the U.S. the VF8 Fixed plan now costs $169 (previously $110) and the VF9 Fixed Plan now costs $219 (previously $160).

All of these price changes have gone unannounced as we have been unable to find any press releases detailing them, so we don’t know exactly when they took place, but it was very recently as just a few days ago the company was replying to comments on Facebook with the old pricing.

Since there has been no announcement we don’t know if existing reservation holders are going to be grandfathered in at their original pricing. It looks unlikely however as the VinFast website has a footnote that prices are subject to change, and their reservation agreement says the deposit “does not lock in pricing.”

We have reached out to VinFast for comment but due to the long weekend we have not received a response by the time of publication. We will update this story when we get a response.

UPDATE 9:15am PDT: In a statement to Drive Tesla, VinFast says increased material costs are to blame for the price increase, but the good news is that existing reservation holders as of September 1 will receive their original pricing. The full statement is below.

“Material costs increased a lot recently, so we have to increase our prices to offset a part of the new costs. The new prices are only applied to new reservations made from September 1 onward, so it doesn’t affect current reservation holders.” – VinFast

Here is a breakdown of the price changes.