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VinFast lands record orders for VF3 EV in its home country

Credit: VinFast

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VinFast’s VF3 electric vehicle may be the company’s biggest home run hitter yet.

The automaker based out of Hanoi, Vietnam, announced this morning that the VF3 has landed the most pre-orders for a vehicle ever in the country. Within 66 hours of its launch, the VF3 had 27,649 non-refundable and non-transferable pre-orders, setting a new record.

“The 27,649 pre-orders received within 66 hours is a testament to the strong support and trust of the Vietnamese people for VinFast,” CEO Ms. Duong Thi Thu Trang said. “We are extremely grateful for our customers’ endorsement for the VF 3 and our brand, and we will strive to continue to earn their support as we grow into a world-class Vietnamese automaker.”

VinFast used an interesting strategy to try and gain more traction. Instead of just selling the vehicle through its website, the company made orders available on e-commerce platforms as well and achieved more than half of its total orders online. This made the car available to anyone from anywhere, making the car-buying process easy and less stressful.

Credit: VinFast

At least 20,000 VF3 vehicles are expected to be delivered this year, according to the company, which plans to get the first units to customers in August.

The VF3 has received an incredible amount of hype in Vietnam and became somewhat of a social media phenomenon earlier this year.

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Its introductory pricing also managed to attract buyers from all corners of the country, as VinFast launched two price points. One includes a battery subscription, which allows owners to pay more or less based on their range needs. This was something the company adjusted with its VF 8 and VF9 models by increasing prices.

The VF3 with the battery subscription started at just $9,248, while the vehicle alone was priced at $12,390. This affordable price point on both vehicle options makes the car extremely attractive to any consumer, and its flexible financing options also seem to be positive for potential buyers.

VinFast only requires a downpayment of $1,965 to $2,750 to lock in the order. This leaves only a small amount of a loan remaining, and if financed over the course of 84 months, which is an extremely long time considering other options, the monthly payment will be roughly $78.50.

There is also a generous warranty that is the best offering in the Vietnamese market: a 7-year or 160,000 km warranty for the vehicle (whichever comes first) and an 8-year unlimited mileage warranty for the battery.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

Grok coming to Tesla vehicles next week “at the latest:” Elon Musk

Grok’s rollout to Tesla vehicles is expected to begin next week at the latest.

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Credit: Tesla China

Elon Musk announced on Thursday that Grok, the large language model developed by his startup xAI, will soon be available in Tesla vehicles. Grok’s rollout to Tesla vehicles is expected to begin next week at the latest, further deepening the ties between the two Elon Musk-led companies.

Tesla–xAI synergy

Musk confirmed the news on X shortly after livestreaming the release of Grok 4, xAI’s latest large language model. “Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles very soon. Next week at the latest,” Musk wrote in a post on social media platform X.

During the livestream, Musk and several members of the xAI team highlighted several upgrades to Grok 4’s voice capabilities and performance metrics, positioning the LLM as competitive with top-tier models from OpenAI and Google.

The in-vehicle integration of Grok marks a new chapter in Tesla’s AI development. While Tesla has long relied on in-house systems for autonomous driving and energy optimization, Grok’s integration would introduce conversational AI directly into its vehicles’ user experience. This integration could potentially improve customer interaction inside Tesla vehicles.

xAI and Tesla’s collaborative footprint

Grok’s upcoming rollout to Tesla vehicles adds to a growing business relationship between Tesla and xAI. Earlier this year, Tesla disclosed that it generated $198.3 million in revenue from commercial, consulting, and support agreements with xAI, as noted in a report from Bloomberg News. A large portion of that amount, however, came from the sale of Megapack energy storage systems to the artificial intelligence startup.

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In July 2023, Musk polled X users about whether Tesla should invest $5 billion in xAI. While no formal investment has been made so far, 68% of poll participants voted yes, and Musk has since stated that the idea would be discussed with Tesla’s board.

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Tesla Robotaxi to expand Austin coverage, Bay Area launch targeted in coming months

Tesla is looking at the San Francisco Bay Area as the next location for its Robotaxi service.

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Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Tesla is preparing to expand its Robotaxi pilot program in Austin, Texas, with the self-driving service set to cover a larger portion of the city this weekend. The CEO shared the update in a post on social media platform X, where he also noted that the company is currently looking at the San Francisco Bay Area as the location for Tesla’s next Robotaxi pilot.

Tesla’s growing Robotaxi pilot

Tesla’s Robotaxi service first launched in Austin last month as a test program. While the vehicles operate without a human in the driver’s seat, a Tesla employee currently rides in the front passenger seat to monitor vehicle performance. Responses to Tesla’s Robotaxi pilot are quite positive, with some users praising the vehicles for their smooth and comfortable rides.

In a later post on X, Musk also stated that Tesla is in the process of seeking regulatory approval to begin operating robotaxis in the Bay Area, adding that a launch there could happen within “a month or two.” The California expansion would be a notable milestone for Tesla, considering its roots in the state.

Robotaxi is key to Tesla’s long-term growth

Autonomous driving remains central to Tesla’s long-term vision. Musk has consistently framed Robotaxis as a future driver of profitability and growth, particularly as EV sales face headwinds across multiple regions. In a way, the expansion of Tesla’s autonomous fleet is expected to play a critical role in differentiating the company’s offerings in a crowded electric vehicle market.

Tesla has yet to specify when the Robotaxi service will transition out of its testing phase or how it plans to monetize the platform, as the company is only charging a flat fee of $4.20 per ride in its Austin pilot program today. However, its growing geographic footprint suggests the company is steadily progressing toward wider deployment.

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xAI launches Grok 4 with new $300/month SuperGrok Heavy subscription

xAI also introduced SuperGrok Heavy, which is priced at $300 per month.

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Credit: xAI/X

xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, has officially launched its latest flagship models, Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy. Alongside the release, the company introduced its most premium subscription tier to date, SuperGrok Heavy, which is priced at $300 per month and targeted at power users and developers.

Grok 4 is designed to compete with top-tier AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. As per xAI, Grok 4 demonstrates frontier-level performance across several benchmark evaluations. 

On Humanity’s Last Exam, an extensive test designed to evaluate general knowledge, Grok 4 scored 25.4% without using external tools, outperforming OpenAI’s o3 (high), which scored 21%, and Gemini 2.5 Pro, which scored 21.6%. 

When equipped with tools, Grok 4 Heavy scored 44.4%, making it the top-performing model in that category. For context, Gemini 2.5 Pro with tools scored 26.9%, as noted in a TechCrunch report.

xAI also highlighted Grok 4 Heavy’s “multi-agent” system, which enables multiple instances of the model to solve a problem in parallel and compare answers, similar to a study group. This collaborative approach is intended to improve both reasoning and accuracy in complex tasks.

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The company also shared results from the ARC-AGI-2 benchmark, where Grok (Thinking) achieved new state of the art (SOTA) score on the test with 15.9%. As per Arc Prize in a post on X, this score is “nearly double(s) the previous commercial SOTA and tops the current Kaggle competition SOTA.”

The $300/month SuperGrok Heavy plan grants users early access to Grok 4 Heavy, as well as upcoming product features. Upcoming capabilities that are planned for release in the coming months include an AI coding model in August, a multi-modal agent in September, and a video generation system in October.

Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy are available via API as part of xAI’s push to engage developers and enterprise users. The company’s enterprise platform, which launched just two months ago, will also expand via partnerships with cloud hyperscalers to bring Grok models to broader infrastructure environments.

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