The factory is a myth. Just cleared dirt. And now North Carolina is suing the people who promised to build it.
Yesterday Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced the move against VinFast. The Vietnamese automaker owes the state for site prep in Chatham County and needs to give back the land. That’s it. No factory. Just a legal bill and 800,001 square feet of emptiness south of Raleigh.
Remember the hype?
March 2022 was sunny. VinFast and NC shook on a $3 billion deal. They promised 7500 eventual jobs. The VF8 SUV got attention, some of it skeptical. We drove that car. It had potential, sure. But then came the delays. The timeline shifted. Then it shifted again.
North Carolina paid up to $450 million for infrastructure and land readiness. VinFast got to work clearing trees in 2023. That’s still happening. Nothing else has gone up since then. The contract said a groundbreaking would lead to a completed facility by July 2027—wait, let’s check the text. July 2026. Yes. 1750 workers by year end.
It is June. The site is grass. Or mud. Maybe both.
Jackson put it plainly: “VinFast agreed to build a factory… It didn’t do either.” When you sign a deal with public money, the state keeps triggers ready. This is one snapping shut. VinFast claims they still intend to build. They just moved the goalpost. Two years. They want until 2028.
Too late. The state declared a default in January. They are pulling the plug now to find a new tenant for the parcel. One that will actually break ground.
The site remains empty. It’s just a really expensive patch of ground now.
“We’re using that protection to find a项目 for this site that will create Jobs.”
Who will take over next? Probably not someone with electric sedans from Vietnam. Likely a domestic player. Or nothing at all. The silence on the Chatham land is louder than the construction noise that was supposed to be there.
