[Holt]

The Ocean has been named as one of the 31 vehicles eligible for this year's North American Utility Vehicle Of The Year Award!

NACTOY Releases Annual List of Vehicle Award Candidates - North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year

DETROIT – June 9, 2022 – The North American Car, Truck, and Utility Vehicle of the Year (NACTOY) Awards™ said today it expects a total of 47 cars, trucks, and utility vehicles to be eligible for the 2023 awards – tying with 2019 for the most eligible vehicles in the history of the awards.

northamericancaroftheyear.org

Utility Vehicle of the Year

1. Audi Q4 e-tron
2. BMW iX xDrive M50i
3. Cadillac Lyriq
4. Fisker Ocean
5. Genesis GV60
6. Honda CR-V
7. Honda HR-V
8. Honda Pilot
9. Kia Sportage
10. Kia Niro
11. Kia EV6
12. Jeep Wagoneer LWB
13. Jeep Grand Wagoneer LWB
14. Land Rover Range Rover
15. Land Rover Range Rover SV
16. Land Rover Range Rover Sport
17. Land Rover Defender 130
18. Lexus LX600
19. Lexus RX
20. Mazda CX-50
21. Nissan Ariya
22. Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT
23. Rivian R1S
24. Subaru Solterra
25. Toyota Sequoia
26. Toyota bZ4X
27. Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid
28. Vinfast VF 8
29. Vinfast VF 9
30. Volvo C40 Recharge
31. Additional Utility vehicle TBA

 

[HotIce]

Amazing. The Ocean will be a huge game changer when it hits the market.

 

[Heynowirv]

Why are they nominating vehicles that aren't even built yet? It seems little weird to me.

 

[baydreamer]

Why are they nominating vehicles that aren't even built yet? It seems little weird to me.

I was wondering about that also. As hopeful as I am that the Ocean is great (and I have a reservation to prove it), we won't know for sure until it's out in the real world.

 

[TT97]

Why are they nominating vehicles that aren't even built yet? It seems little weird to me.

It's the 2023 award so it has to be for new or substantially new vehicles that are available for sale by year end. An existing vehicle wouldn't be eligible.

Being a "candidate" doesn't mean much - it just means the vehicle is eligible. All eligible vehicles are candidates.

 

[sirozha]

Can’t wait for the Ocean to come out, but what’s the meaning of this list? Vinfast is on this list. Really? A never heard of brand from an industrial titan that is Vietnam? I’d rather Fisker NOT be on this list.

Vinfast is an acronym that stands for “Pioneer of Creativity, Safety and Style from Vietnam.” The company was established in 2017 and attempted to sell their EVs to Russia in 2021. Great move in hindsight. Now they are coming to the most cut-throat automotive market in the world, which is the US. I somehow think this is going to belly flop big time. Who in the US is going to be buying EVs made by a company from Vietnam without much experience selling their cars outside Vietnam? I’m sure these are great EVs compared with the bicycles and mopeds that are so popular in Vietnam.

 

[Heynowirv]

Can’t wait for the Ocean to come out, but what’s the meaning of this list? Vinfast is on this list. Really? A never heard of brand from an industrial titan that is Vietnam? I’d rather Fisker NOT be on this list.

Vinfast is an acronym that stands for “Pioneer of Creativity, Safety and Style from Vietnam.” The company was established in 2017 and attempted to sell their EVs to Russia in 2021. Great move in hindsight. Now they are coming to the most cut-throat automotive market in the world, which is the US. I somehow think this is going to belly flop big time. Who in the US is going to be buying EVs made by a company from Vietnam without much experience selling their cars outside Vietnam? I’m sure these are great EVs compared with the bicycles and mopeds that are so popular in Vietnam.

The same was said about Hyundai,Toyota and Datsun.

 

[BayouCityBob]

Can’t wait for the Ocean to come out, but what’s the meaning of this list? Vinfast is on this list. Really? A never heard of brand from an industrial titan that is Vietnam? I’d rather Fisker NOT be on this list.

Vinfast is an acronym that stands for “Pioneer of Creativity, Safety and Style from Vietnam.” The company was established in 2017 and attempted to sell their EVs to Russia in 2021. Great move in hindsight. Now they are coming to the most cut-throat automotive market in the world, which is the US. I somehow think this is going to belly flop big time. Who in the US is going to be buying EVs made by a company from Vietnam without much experience selling their cars outside Vietnam? I’m sure these are great EVs compared with the bicycles and mopeds that are so popular in Vietnam.

The issues you mention with Vinfast are the least of its weaknesses. The battery leasing program is nothing short of idiotic. If you buy a Vinfast, you do not own the battery. You must pay for it on a monthly basis in perpetuity as long you (or anyone else) owns the car. It roughly doubles the price of the vehicle over its expected life. Craziness. (I included more detailed numbers in another post which you can find if you search for Vinfast on the forum.)

 

[MTN Ranger]

Can’t wait for the Ocean to come out, but what’s the meaning of this list? Vinfast is on this list. Really? A never heard of brand from an industrial titan that is Vietnam? I’d rather Fisker NOT be on this list.

Vinfast is an acronym that stands for “Pioneer of Creativity, Safety and Style from Vietnam.” The company was established in 2017 and attempted to sell their EVs to Russia in 2021. Great move in hindsight. Now they are coming to the most cut-throat automotive market in the world, which is the US. I somehow think this is going to belly flop big time. Who in the US is going to be buying EVs made by a company from Vietnam without much experience selling their cars outside Vietnam? I’m sure these are great EVs compared with the bicycles and mopeds that are so popular in Vietnam.

Despite the battery leasing weakness, Vinfast set up US headquarters in Los Angeles, and is coming on strong for a North America introduction. They have a lot of money and seem very motivated. They are planning to build a $2B (first phase) auto factory about 25 miles from my house in outside of Raleigh NC. Deliveries are planned to start this Fall from cars imported from Vietnam (existing factory has capacity for 1M cars).

In addition, the coming wave of Chinese EVs (BYD, SAIC, NIO, Xpeng, Li Auto, etc) are going to be huge. Existing manufacturers are going to see big changes and consolidation in the coming years.

 

[ToddH65]

Despite the battery leasing weakness, Vinfast set up US headquarters in Los Angeles, and is coming on strong for a North America introduction. They have a lot of money and seem very motivated. They are planning to build a $2B (first phase) auto factory about 25 miles from my house in outside of Raleigh NC. Deliveries are planned to start this Fall from cars imported from Vietnam (existing factory has capacity for 1M cars).

In addition, the coming wave of Chinese EVs (BYD, SAIC, NIO, Xpeng, Li Auto, etc are going to be huge. Existing manufacturers are going to see big changes and consolidation in the coming years.

I am very intrigued by BYD. Would love to see that come to the US.

 

[ttouch8646]

I am just happy to see more EVs out on the road and many more to come which offer more selection to the masses especially with the record high gas prices here in the US. I am as hoping that the Ocean would be made available to journalists in the summer but now I am hearing it won’t be available for journalists til October which is too close to the delivery date.

 

[Bernie]

The journalist test drives for Ioniq 5 came out very late compared to the North American launch. The videos were coming out at the same time or later than first deliveries. Of course, being Korean made, there were some good reviews out of Korea well before the NA journalists got ahold of it. It's unfortunately too late to wait for reviews if you're an early reservation holders.

 

[FutureSurfer]

Why are they nominating vehicles that aren't even built yet? It seems little weird to me.

Yeah seems like the cart way ahead of the horse here. How in the world can you say something that you have never driven, never touched, and we don't even know all of the details around could even be considered for car of the year. Even if everything goes as plan you will have a month and a half to see if you were right - lol!

 

[WatzOne]

The issues you mention with Vinfast are the least of its weaknesses. The battery leasing program is nothing short of idiotic. If you buy a Vinfast, you do not own the battery. You must pay for it on a monthly basis in perpetuity as long you (or anyone else) owns the car. It roughly doubles the price of the vehicle over its expected life. Craziness. (I included more detailed numbers in another post which you can find if you search for Vinfast on the forum.)

The Vinfast battery leasing plan is new for us here in the USA, but it's already being done in China, and the BIG advantage of that plan, is that you will NEVER be stuck with a dead Electric Vehicle battery, which is the MOST expensive part of the vehicle. I have read about a few cases of Tesla Model S batteries dying and Tesla was charging $20,000 to install a new battery !!!! That would NEVER happen with the VinFast Battery Leasing Plan !!!!!!!‼‼‼🚙

 

[BayouCityBob]

The Vinfast battery leasing plan is new for us here in the USA, but it's already being done in China, and the BIG advantage of that plan, is that you will NEVER be stuck with a dead Electric Vehicle battery, which is the MOST expensive part of the vehicle. I have read about a few cases of Tesla Model S batteries dying and Tesla was charging $20,000 to install a new battery !!!! That would NEVER happen with the VinFast Battery Leasing Plan !!!!!!!‼‼‼🚙

Probably an obvious point, but the first time this becomes relevant is after the first ten years or 100,000 miles, right? Until then, pretty much every warranty is at least as good if not better than VinFast. So you get zero for the first 10 years.

If you are driving a VF9 during the first 10 years you will pay $19,200 on battery rental. You get exactly nothing whatsoever out of that from a warranty perspective that you do not already get for free from Fisker or Tesla or Rivian or Hyundai etc.

Main power batteries going bad is an extremely rare occurrence. If you are driving more than 20,000 miles a year it might be worthwhile to do a battery lease. Also this is not at all common in China. I do not know of any company doing this, do you? Nio has a battery leasing program but it is a completely different model. Instead of filling up at a charger, you stop at a battery station to swap the battery for a full one. The only program similar to VinFast's of which I am aware (happy to be corrected) is the old and discontinued Renault leasing program. It was offered in the early years of EV adoption when people were nervous about battery life (especially after the horrible performance of the air cooled Nissan batteries in the US). It was never terribly popular and was discontinued for lack of interest.