If you are ready to make the plunge and drive an electric car, there are a number of impressive lease deals available right now. The reason for all of these deals is that every EV, regardless of where it is built or where the battery comes from, qualifies for a $7,500 credit that can be factored into the lease payments. The latest lease offer comes from VinFast, a brand-new brand that just arrived on American shores from Vietnam.
VinFast only offers a single model (for now), the VF 8, a compact electric crossover that loosely competes with the Tesla Model Y. The 2024 VinFast VF 8 clearly doesn’t have the brand recognition of a Tesla, but it offers what is possibly the best lease deal on a new vehicle right now. You can drive a VF 8 for just $199 per month (for 36 months) with $0 down and 10,000 miles per year, if you lease it. For reference, the VF 8 Eco is a car with a $46,000 starting price. The Model Y Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive is a $44,990 vehicle, but it costs $439 per month for the same amount of time and mileage, with a whopping $2,999 as a down payment. A comparably priced Honda Proglue with similar range is $289 per month and requires $2,999 up front.
What You Get For $199
For less than the price of an Apple Watch, you can drive a brand-new EV that isn’t exactly devoid of features. The VF 8 Eco packs two electric motors producing 349 horsepower, pushing it up to 60 mph in under six seconds. An 87.8 kWh battery enables a 264-mile range; it’s not class-leading, but it’s completely usable. Notably, VinFast originally planned to lease the VF 8 for $599 per month, which would have made it slightly less expensive than the Model Y (at the time), but now it’s far more enticing, which is necessary in this competitive environment.
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In addition to the competitive powertrain, you also get plenty of standard amenities. There’s a 15.6-inch touchscreen inside, vegan heated leather seats, ambient lighting, a heated steering wheel, automatic climate control, eight speakers, and keyless entry. Every VF 8 also includes a bundle of safety features, including traffic jam assist, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, forward collision warning, rear cross-traffic alert, blind spot detection, a 360-degree camera, and more. If you’d prefer to purchase rather than lease, VinFast offers 0% APR financing with $7,500 bonus cash.
Spring For The Plus?
The VF 8 Eco is the best deal, but some buyers may be willing to shell out a bit extra for the VF 8 Plus. This is a $51,800 car, but it’s still available on the same terms as the Eco for just $249 per month. For an extra $50 per month, the Plus produces 402 hp, dropping the 0-60 mph time to 5.5 seconds. It also has the side effect of dropping the range to 243 miles, which is still acceptable. The Plus upgrades to 20-inch wheels (19s on the Eco), a power liftgate, premium vegan leather with heated and ventilated seats, heated rear seats, powered steering wheel adjustment, 10 speakers plus a subwoofer, and a panoramic glass roof.
During our drive of the VF8, we experienced both software issues and quality issues. It just wasn’t ready and needed a little more time to bake. VinFast has been working to correct those early problems, so it might be worth a test drive given the current lease deal.
We won’t lie, early impressions of the VF 8 in the US were less than stellar. Our First Drive Review called it “not ready for prime time” thanks to a litany of software and quality issues. However, if VinFast can quickly resolve these issues or if you are willing to roll the dice for what is inarguably an amazing lease deal, perhaps the VF 8 could be a great option for someone who needs an affordable EV to go from point A to point B.
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