February 6, 2023: Vietnam’s electric automaker VinFast said it would delay deliveries to its initial customers in the U.S. from the second half of February after updating the vehicles with the latest software.

The Vietnamese firm, a unit of conglomerate Vingroup, is increasing up to expand in the U.S., where it hopes to battle with existing automakers.

It started to ship its initial 999 electric vehicles (EVs) in November of the previous year but has yet to deliver them to customers after the company initially targeted December deliveries.

“The cars have been updated with the recent software. We are planning to hand over the initial VF8 vehicle models to customers in the next half of February,” VinFast stated.

“The second batch will ship to the U.S. in the second quarter of the year 2023,” the statement stated, without specifying the size of the lot.

VinFast stated that it secured 55,000 globally as of December in the previous year, of which 12,000 are from the U.S. market. It delivered more than 4,000 EVs to customers domestically in December, over half of which were the sports utility vehicle VF8 model.

VinFast announced the recent pricing promotions for the U.S. market to protect the huge competitiveness of its models after Tesla’s similar programs.

The Vietnamese automaker is planning to build an EV plant in the U.S. North Carolina and waiting for final regulatory approval from local officials.