Whistleblower report blows the lid on VinFast vehicles safety

A British whistleblower has been fired over his alleged claims that VinFast vehicles can fall apart while driving, causing serious injuries or death, as in the case of a family of four from California that were killed earlier this year.

The Vietnamese electric vehicle maker has proposed building a $4 billion electric vehicle factory in Moncure, Chatham County. The state of North Carolina is spending more than $750 million on the project, between promised tax credits and infrastructure improvements, while Chatham County is giving VinFast hundreds of millions in additional incentives. It is part of out-going Gov. Roy Cooper’s push to draw “green” jobs to the state.

Hazar Denli, a mechanical engineer and specialist in chassis design, told the BBC in a Dec. 18 report that he first raised concerns internally while working at a different division of Tata Group, its global engineering consultancy Tata Technologies. Tata Group owns Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

He said that in test-driving prototypes designed by Tata Technologies for Vinfast, he identified improperly designed components in the car’s chassis, including its suspension system, with some of them snapping off.

Denli said that it created a risk under stress, like hitting a pothole, which could cause the wheels to become misaligned, causing the car to veer left or right without prompting, and even loosening of the structure, possibly causing the wheels to come off and causing the driver to lose control.

The article said that he was appointed to lead the engineering team working on the car’s front suspension and chassis from September 2022, halfway through a design and testing phase he says had an unusually tight timetable.

Denli told the BBC he became concerned that VinFast was cutting corners with safety, keeping costs down by employing a small team of inexperienced engineers.

His concerns only grew when he heard three of his predecessors had quit after short stints on the project.

In February and March 2023, while vigorously testing VinFast cars at a technology park in England, two components snapped off, and another two failed.

That prompted Denli to report the incidents Tata Technologies Limited (TTL), the consultancy’s UK division.

In more testing, he told the BBC that further components allegedly failed after fewer than 15,534 miles when they should have lasted for at least 93,205 miles. Some of the aluminum brackets weighing two to four pounds were falling onto the road.

Denli took his concerns to senior executives at TTL and VinFast and told them the faulty components needed to be redesigned, and safer, higher-quality parts needed to be manufactured, causing costs to rise and preempt the production of the car by VinFast.

Denli told the BBC that VinFast was preparing to sell shares of its company and raise funds by being listed on the New York Stock Exchange and pushed ahead with production.

Carolina Journal reported in August 2023 that VinFast began trading on the Nasdaq.

Denli asked Tata Technologies to reassign him to another project, but they refused. Not wanting to be associated with VinFast any further, he resigned in May 2023. He would go on to find work at JLR.

He would go on to keep seeing reports online showing videos of safety

defects in earlier models of the same VinFast car – including a video that appeared to show a car reversing with no driver in it – and crashed cars where the wheels had come off.

Another report showed that a VinFast car at a showroom in Germany caught fire.

Denli told the BBC that the same components he was testing in VinFast’s VF6 and VF7 models had been carried over from two earlier models already on sale in the United States, Vietnam, and Europe – the VF8 and VF9.

On April 24, a crash killed a family in Pleasanton, California. Police reported the VinFast vehicle they were in lost control, veered off the road, hit a pole, and caught fire.

The following month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), announced it was reviewing the VinFast VF8. VinFast said it was cooperating with the investigation.

The reports prompted Denli to post on Reddit in May that he worked on the car’s design and believed it endangered lives.

“I would get into every other vehicle I have designed from other brands… and every vehicle has flaws… But Vinfast, I wouldn’t get into one… never will, and I won’t let my loved ones get into one either,” the BBC said he wrote on Reddit.

“I was distressed as to what was happening around the world where innocent people were paying the price – a very high price,” Denli told the BBC.

He would lose his job at JLR two months later because of the post. He was also blacklisted the same day on industry recruitment platform Magnit.

Denli is disputing his termination.

In September, the NHTSA launched an investigation into the VinFast VF8. They were looking into 3,118 vehicles sold in the US after 14 drivers reported the Lane Keep Assist systems were flawed in VF8 cars bought in 2023 and 2024. The number of safety issues has since risen to 28 complaints.

VinFast told Reuters at the time that it was fully cooperating.

The Tata Group did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment. JLR said it did not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

VinFast told the BBC, “We do not interfere in the recruitment or HR activities of the Tata Group or its companies. We have no further comment on the matter.”

While VinFast’s vehicles’ safety is uncertain, the site’s future at Triangle Innovation Point, Chatham County, is also uncertain.

Officials said that 7,500 jobs would be created and 150,000 vehicles per year could be built in Phase 1 of the project.

They first announced plans to open the plant in March 2022, with an opening planned for 2024. In March 2023, they announced that the opening would be delayed until 2025..

In July, it got pushed back even further to 2028.

The company has been plagued with mostly bad news.

It has lost billions of dollars, sold over half of its vehicles to itself in 2023, been accused of polluting waterways near its Chatham County site, safety recalls, and bad reviews.

It also received a grant through the state’s Transformative Job Development and Investment Grant program. VinFast could get up to $316.1 million in reimbursement from the state over three decades if the company meets hiring goals. The state is spending another $450 million on infrastructure around the site. The total state appropriation is estimated at $766 million, with Chatham County giving VinFast another $400-million incentive package.

Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, who gave his farewell speech on Wednesday, has been one of the main drivers behind prompting the company to come to the Tar Heel State.

“We continue to use executive orders to push our state toward more renewable energy, like wind and solar, and more electric vehicles,” Cooper said Wednesday. “All of it has created better-paying jobs for North Carolina. The investments we made today have cemented our place as the epicenter of the clean energy economy.”

Cooper mentioned he might purchase one of the new electric vehicles himself, noting he hasn’t driven in eight years.

Critics, however, argue Cooper’s green energy agenda has come at a cost. “He promoted a ‘green energy’ agenda that would limit consumers’ choices, raise electricity bills unnecessarily, and strain an energy grid when it needs to be strengthened instead,” said Brian Balfour, vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation “He spent much of his eight-year tenure fighting with Republican leaders in the General Assembly, even though their fiscally responsible policies paved the way for the economic growth that likely boosted Cooper’s political fortunes.”

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