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.
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