North Carolina’s Billion-Dollar Bet on an EV Outsider

HAIPHONG, Vietnam—When electric-car startup VinFast Auto was looking to build a factory in the U.S., one state caught its attention in particular: North Carolina. 

For years, officials there had been trying to get an automobile manufacturer to set up shop in rural Chatham County. More than a billion dollars of incentives got them the Vietnamese upstart with huge ambitions but a limited record.

HAIPHONG, Vietnam—When electric-car startup VinFast Auto was looking to build a factory in the U.S., one state caught its attention in particular: North Carolina. 

For years, officials there had been trying to get an automobile manufacturer to set up shop in rural Chatham County. More than a billion dollars of incentives got them the Vietnamese upstart with huge ambitions but a limited record.