More Vinfast VF3's and some information about this really cheap E-car

It's become a bit of a hobby of mine to stop and take pictures of this really silly and cute car that has become quite popular in Vietnam.

This car is extremely cheap, it is less than the cost of any car that I recall purchasing or even seeing for sale as far back as 20 years ago.

Most Vietnamese people make very little money and financing a car for $400-$800 a month would be a crazy thing to even proposition. So a car that is electric and only costs $10,000 brand new, that is a good car for the Vietnamese working class. Heck, If I wanted a car I would get one of these. I don't want a car though because the traffic in this city / country is crazy enough for me to not want to be behind the wheel of anything.

Here's the first one and the only reason why I bothered to take a picture of this one is because this is the only dirty VF3 I have ever seen. The people that own these cars tend to treat them like a treasured possession and they are always clean. I also took a pic of it because it is the opposite of the really silly other pink one I saw in the same day.

I do not know what either of these things are. Perhaps some sort of Vietnamese version of Pokemon or Doraemon?

The owner of this car clearly cares a great deal about this car and has the custom decals as well as a roof rack accessory to show for it. While I couldn't get my camera out in time I saw another VF3 that had a roof rack that was actually being used. There was a bunch of luggage on top of the car and that is probably because there is almost zero cargo space inside of the car, especially if you have anyone in the back seat.

I'm gonna have to look up what these things are but if you know, please do tell!

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A little history about this car: While it is manufactured in Vietnam and that is where the parent group VinFast is headquartered, the design of the car was actually performed by a company called Gomotiv, which is an Australian design company based out of Melbourne.

Thus far the car has been made available in 3 primary markets. It was first sold in Vietnam, then in the following year (2024) it was sold in the Philippines and then most recently (2025) it was made available in Indonesia. The VF3 sold around 45,000 units in Vietnam, but the international sales figures are not available. Since I never hear anyone talking about them outside of Vietnam, I am going to guess they are not very popular. I think I would be a bit hesitant to purchase a very cheap electric car made by a company that I have never heard of that probably doesn't have a great many places where you can get repairs done on them.

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This interior shot doesn't really do the brand any favors but the other night a friend of mine had rented one of them to move house - which probably took a lot of trips seeing as how there is almost zero cargo space - and I sat in the front seat and was kind of surprised about how spacious it felt. While from the outside this looks like some sort of clown car from the circus, it was no different feeling than any other car I have driven in my life. I think I would feel at least a little bit intimidated by the really small size of this car.

Despite the rather chaotic appearance of the roads in Vietnam there really aren't that many accidents here and that is something that always kind of boggles my mind. Apparently the cameras are always active, the police DO follow up on violations, and the fines are extremely high. Fear will keep them in line!

While I have noticed a very big push to sell Vinfast e-cars I was unaware until I did a bit of research that Vinfast's line of cars are now the number 1 selling car brand in Vietnam. The incentives and lack of import tariffs are likely a big incentive for a lot of people. Many of my taxis are Vinfast cars and all of them are quite nice as far as the interior is concenred.

My big question about this brand though is something we likely will not know the answer to for a number of years more: how reliable and durable is the battery? This has been a rather massive problem for other e-cars around the world because when the battery dies, it can't normally be repaired and this is by far the most expensive component of the vehicle. There are stories about many people when they need to replace their battery are shocked to find out that a replacement battery is higher than the price of simply buying another car.

Let's hope that is not the case with these VF3's because the people who are buying them are mostly the middle-class, and most of them likely do not have the resources to just buy another car when this one dies.

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_{is this a good price for a car in the Philippines?}

Keep an eye out for these silly little cars if you live in Indonesia or Philippines. While their primary market was always going to be Vietnam, they are apparently aggressively pursuing other markets including India, where Vinfast recently built a production factory.