VinFast is keeping the door open for EV plant in NC. But will the state wait? (2025)

I’m Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.

According to a timeline seen as ambitious the moment it was announced, the new Vietnamese carmaker VinFast was supposed to open a North Carolina factory last July, an early milestone on the company’s path toward producing 200,000 electric SUVs a year at a 7,500-worker assembly plant in southeastern Chatham County.

What has happened instead is relatively nothing. No plant. No jobs. Little to no construction. Multiple delays. VinFast’s main building permits expired in December. Rather than launch its first U.S. plant, the company has postponed making vehicles in North Carolina until at least 2028. The state’s long wait for a major auto facility continues.

On an earnings calls Thursday, VinFast chairwoman Le Thi Thu Thuy said the U.S. last year accounted for only 4% of VinFast deliveries, or around 3,800 vehicles. She added that America customers aren’t expected to drive growth in 2025 either. In contrast, VinFast’s dominant market continues to be Vietnam, where it sold 90% of its electric vehicles last year.

It’s not time to give up on VinFast as a driving experience, says Lenore Acevedo, a Clayton resident currently leasing one from the Leith VinFast dealership in Cary. Despite the car’s atrocious initial reviews, Acevedo described her VinFast SUV as comfortable and efficient. With more improvements, she said, it will surpass the quality of her husband’s Tesla.

“I always believe you have to give something a chance,” she said.

VinFast has increased its visibility statewide. Leith VinFast is no longer the carmaker’s only U.S. dealership; in North Carolina alone, there’s Triad VinFast in Greensboro and Charlotte VinFast.

“The U.S. remains one of our key markets, and we are committed to it for the long term,” Thuy said in response to a question about the North Carolina factory’s future.

Owned by Vietnam’s wealthiest man, VinFast is more immune to not making a profit. On Thursday, the company reported it lost $3.1 billion in 2024. Yet even this loss-making corporation won’t build a U.S. plant until enough drivers here actually want its cars.

VinFast is verbally keeping that door open. In an email to The N&O, VinFast said 2028 is still its target, writing, “At this time, there are no updates to the site plan or the timeline. We will keep you posted.”

But will North Carolina and Chatham County wait for VinFast? Tax records show the company has paid local governments more than $101,000 since it purchased the 1,765-acre site in 2022 near the small unincorporated town of Moncure. Chatham County incentivized the factory with property tax rebates, none of which VinFast will get until it reaches its first job creation and investment threshold, county manager Bryan Thompson said.

Because of the carmaker’s delays, Chatham is allowed to terminate its VinFast incentive after Jan. 1. “Chatham County remains attentive to the project’s progress and will evaluate appropriate actions in collaboration with our state partners,” Thompson wrote in an email.

So what will the state do?

VinFast hasn’t received payments through the $316.2 million jobs grant North Carolina awarded it in March 2022. But the state has spent upfront on the land. In 2022, the General Assembly appropriated up to $450 million for site enhancements, including $200 million for the North Carolina Department of Transportation to upgrade local public roads and address wetlands. Additional money was given to the city of Sanford to update water infrastructure to service the site.

North Carolina has the right to purchase VinFast’s land if the company doesn’t start making cars there by July 1, 2026 (which VinFast won’t). The megasite sits among several manufacturing operations and is within striking range of the core Triangle (Durham is a 30-minute drive away). Plus, the state has spent millions improving its attractiveness, should another company be interested.

This week, I asked the N.C. Department of Commerce whether the state will exercise its purchase option.

“The state’s commitments to the VinFast project remain unchanged, as do the strong protections that guard the state’s investment in the project site,” Commerce spokesperson Patrice Bethea said. “We will continue to work with the company, as we do with all companies calling North Carolina home, to support the company’s efforts to achieve its goals and meet the performance requirements necessary under its grant agreements.”

IBM and DOGE

President Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has disrupted a number of IBM contracts this year, the global tech company shared during its earnings call Wednesday.

“Yes, we are not immune from all those activities just like everybody else,” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told investors. IBM chief financial officer James Kavanaugh later told Bloomberg that around 15 contracts have been either paused or terminated, representing approximately $100 million in expected payments.

IBM is a major Triangle employer, and is the parent company of Raleigh’s prominent open source software provider Red Hat. The corporation’s stock was down 7% midday Thursday on falling revenue in its consulting division. “Consulting is also more susceptible to discretionary pullbacks and DOGE-related initiatives,” Krishna said during the call, noting that IBM did some work with the gutted United States Agency for International Development.

Kavanaugh then emphasized that while contracts have been nixed, IBM’s business with the federal government is less than 5% of the company’s total revenue. IBM later declined to provided further details on which contracts were canceled.

Direct File, we hardly knew you?

This (ongoing) tax season is the first and potentially last one for North Carolina residents to file taxes through IRS Direct File, a new government-run service that boasts fast and free service. The Trump administration intends to shutter the program, the Associated Press reported earlier this month.

North Carolina is among 25 states participating in Direct File. It joined last summer and has this year received approximately 11,300 returns through the platform as of April 16, the state Department of Revenue says.

Reports show the free tool has saved individuals money, though it is opposed by the largest private tax filers. “We continue to believe this program is not in the best interest of Americans — either those who use it or those who are funding it with their tax dollars,” H&R Block said in an email last year.

North Carolina is aware of Direct File’s uncertain future, N.C. Department of Revenue spokesperson Dia Harris said, though the state has received no official word from the federal government. Harris said the state’s filing option is dependent on the federal program continuing.

“While we currently have no plans to develop a stand-alone free filing option, other free filing options exist,” she said, adding taxpayers can learn more at the department’s website.

Clearing my cache

• Fujifilm Diosynth landed a third major contract for its drug-making facility in Holly Springs. Having already secured Johnson & Johnson and TG Therapeutics, Fujifilm will also make medicines for Regeneron at the massive Wake County plant it expects to open this year. It’s already hired more than 500 people at the site.
• The best laid economic incentive plans in North Carolina often go awry. This week, the state canceled a 2021 job development investment grant for the diagnostic testing firm Invitae to bring 374 jobs to a former Morrisville mall. The company filed for bankruptcy last year and was bought by the North Carolina medical testing giant Labcorp. No taxpayer money was given through the award.
• But state incentives can produce results. See Fujifilm above. And this week, the Vietnamese solar panel manufacturer Boviet Solar celebrated opening a new factory in Greenville, which promises to employ 900 people. The project is supported by an N.C. jobs grant.
• Duke University’s visa services department warned international students — including permanent resident green card-holders — against traveling abroad, citing potential travel bans and immigration restrictions by the new Trump administration.
• National Institutes of Health issued a notice this week saying it could cancel grants to institutions that boycott Israel or promote “DEI.” UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University combined account for more than half the nearly $2 billion in NIH funding North Carolina organizations received last year.
• Raleigh’s First Citizens Bank had a mixed earnings report Thursday, with higher-than-expected revenue but lower-than-expected earnings. FCB recently exited the loss-share agreement it had entered with the federal government when buying the failed Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023. The agreement provided First Citizens cover should SVB take on heavy losses, but major loses haven’t happened.
• An aviation startup named JetZero is looking to build a factory, and North Carolina is a candidate, according to a report this week by the Triangle Business Journal and Triad Business Journal. JetZero says its factory could create 10,000 jobs — though such projections should probably be taken with a grain of salt.
• Four Triangle business leaders are finalists for Ernst & Young’s annual “Entrepreneur of the Year” regional awards. They are Lou Hensley of Aspida, Chistopher Chuang of Relay, Kurt Jacobus of restor3d, and Cindy Eckert of Sprout Pharmaceuticals. The Southeast regional winner will be announce June 25.

National Tech Happenings

• “Alright, so here we are in front of the elephants.” These are the opening words of the first-ever YouTube video, a 19-second clip of the platform’s cofounder at a zoo. The video posted 20 years ago this week. Since then, the site has facilitated well over 2 trillion views.
• With stocks volatile, the price of Bitcoin climbed back above $90,000 this week, evidence the top cryptocurrency is growing less correlated to the traditional market.
• Pharma giant Eli Lilly has sued four health care startups selling alternative weight-loss drugs. North Carolina is uniquely positioned in the booming market for GPL-1s like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic, as well as Eli Lilly’s popular obesity treatment Zepbound. Novo Nordisk has a major manufacturing operation in Johnston County while Eli Lilly has sites in Research Triangle Park and north of Charlotte.

Thanks for reading!

This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 6:00 AM.