battery – Ewing VinFast of Plano

February 15, 2025February 11, 2025

How to Optimize and Improve Your Electric Car’s Range Overnight

Driving a VinFast VF8 and VF9 is exhilarating. Unlike a gas-powered car, an EV has an immediate surge of power and thrust as soon as you touch the throttle. Unlike a gas-powered car that has so many things that have to happen all at once to make the power and torque to move the car, an EV has a battery and a gearbox and that’s pretty much it.

Faster Than You Think

While both VinFast vehicles aren’t performance cars, they feel much faster than their 0-60 mph times show simply due to the fact that there is no lag or delay between when the throttle is pressed and when the car goes. However, while this is fun and it is addictive, you can lose range very quickly. Let’s talk about some ways that you can improve your car’s range.

Ease Up on the Throttle a Bit

Step one is simple: your foot can modulate the throttle. You don’t have to put the pedal to the metal like you’re the Bandit in Smokey and the Bandit. Your daily commute doesn’t call for a drag race at every traffic light. Gas cars and EVs are similar in this regard. While a gas car uses more fuel the more throttle it’s given, an EV uses more battery power the more you lean into the accelerator. Just chill. No one’s racing for pink slips out here.

Take the Slower Roads for Maximum Efficiency

If you don’t have a set time that you have to be somewhere, or if you leave early enough, set your route guidance to avoid highways and areas with lots of traffic. Instead, take the scenic route that allows you to drive at slower speeds rather than 55 mph and higher. This will allow your VinFast to maintain optimal range without putting much stress on the motor.

Try to Limit Your Heat Settings

Be careful not to overuse your heat settings such as heated seats, defroster, and high amounts of heat in general. If you can, run your car plugged into the charger to use the defroster, heated seats, and heater to get the car warmed up before you leave. You can even do this through the VinFast Smartphone app.

Protect Your Battery

Make sure that you are only charging your car’s battery to 70-80 percent overnight, and while you are on the road you’re only charging to 100 percent when you need the range. This is ideal for the battery’s overall health and makes sure that it isn’t being stressed during charging. But, if anything does happen to the battery and it starts to lose capacity, VinFast protects you with a ten-year, unlimited-mile battery warranty that is unlike any other EV brand on the market.

Take Care of Your Tires

Last but not least, take care of your EV’s tires. EVs can be a little harder on tires simply because of the extra weight. Make sure they are inflated to proper levels, especially with weather changes when the tires are most likely to lose some air. Having a tire that is under- or over-inflated can create more friction at certain speeds, forcing the car to work harder to gain speed.

Enjoy Your Ride

More than anything, enjoy your VinFast. It’s a car that’s been designed and engineered to make your life easier, so work with it to get the best experience for yourself and to have a long-lasting and reliable electric vehicle.

Why Choose Ewing VinFast

At Ewing VinFast of Plano, we have the best prices on dozens of new VinFast EVs and used cars. Our well-educated sales staff and finance department will happily assist you with your EV questions and needs. Our fantastic service department will ensure your vehicle stays in the best condition.

We look forward to serving you.

January 5, 2025January 14, 2025

Should I Always Charge My EV at Night?

There are many questions new electric vehicle owners have. It’s kind of like having your first baby—although it’s nothing like having a baby, except in the sense that you wonder if you’re doing anything wrong, given you’re in an unfamiliar position. A question experts get asked all the time is when is it best to charge your VinFast EV? While it seems like a no-brainer to say at night, that answer is changing slightly in the current charging landscape. Thanks to new studies and information from companies like Recurrent Auto, we have more information than ever about charging and EV battery health.

To Charge Overnight or to Not Charge Overnight…

Charging your VinFast at night is, in most cases, a logical answer to when you should charge your car. Fewer items in your home are bogging down the grid. While you may be running your dishwasher at night, it’s rare that you’re also running your washing machine and the dryer, all while charging your car while you are sleeping. This means that energy costs and usages are typically much lower, as even your AC or heating system isn’t running as often or as hard, in most cases. However, it should be noted that energy companies could, at some point, start pricing their energy higher due to more demand at supposed off-peak hours around or after midnight.

Check If Your State Uses Solar Energy for the Grid

With that being said, there are states, like California, that utilize and take advantage of solar energy during the daytime when the sun is out and about up in the sky. This window is between 10 am and 4 pm. These would be optimal times to charge a car, as the grid is emitting less carbon dioxide (CO2) and various greenhouse gases. Instead, it’s being charged more naturally by the carbon-neutral sun. According to Recurrent, though, in California only about 25% of all EV charging occurs during 10 am to 4 pm.

Can the Grid Have Too Many EVs Charging?

Now what happens if there are multiple EVs in your neighborhood that are all plugged in overnight? Well, believe it or not, the meter attached to your house is pretty intelligent. Most meters attached to houses are now called AMRs, or Automated Meter Readers, which send all your power and energy usage digitally to the energy provider. With the switch to digital, that means the meters and the grid as a whole can monitor things more closely. For instance, if you have a dozen cars on one street that are all plugged in to charge overnight, the meters and overall grid communicate with one another. They know the energy/charging needs of each car and can appropriately choose which vehicles to charge first. The systems also know when you typically plug your car in to charge and when you unplug your car. So, it will attempt to charge your car to 100% before the usual time that you unplug your car to leave.

What to Do?

What is the answer? Well, home EV chargers can be set to charge to full by a certain time manually via the actual charger or by the app on your smartphone. If you leave for work at 7 am, then you’ll want to make sure your charger knows this and to tell it that you don’t care when your car gets charged, so long as it’s topped up to 100% by 7 am. Some utility companies offer users the ability to tell them when to charge your car, and some companies are working together to develop even smarter home charging systems that can learn when charging is cheapest, as well as automatically charge from renewable energy sources, whether from your house or the grid.

Things Are Changing Quickly for the Better

The EV industry is changing rapidly, bringing new questions and added solutions. For now, it’s best to plug your car in nightly at home and to tell the charger when you need your VinFast to be fully charged.

Why You Should Choose Ewing VinFast

We look forward to serving you.

June 15, 2024June 26, 2024

The VinFast VF8 Against The Rest

Red Vinfast VF8 driving outside Vinfast dealership.

Even though the 2024 VinFast VF8 is new to the market, it has plenty of tricks up its sleeve and a lot of great standard features that put it right up against some of the best electric vehicles out today. With good power, features, and technology for a good price, the VF8 may be new, but it’s mature.

Features Like No Other

Buying a new EV can be daunting for newcomers to the electric car world. There are lots of options from many automakers. The VinFast VF8 has a base price of $47,325, with fully loaded models hitting $55,000, which is the price of some base EVs in this segment. There are a host of brilliant safety and technology features, including being the only vehicle in its class with Sony RIDEVU, a revolutionary way to watch over 2,000 Sony movies on your car’s infotainment screen or your smartphone.

Standard AWD and Dual Motors

Each VF8 model, whether you buy the Eco or Plus trim, comes with standard all-wheel drive and an 87.7 kWh dual-motor battery system. All-wheel drive and a dual-motor battery pack are optional on the new Honda Prologue, Hyundai IONIQ 5 and 6, Kona, Kia EV6, Volkswagen ID.4, and the Chevrolet Blazer EV. Once you option all-wheel drive and two motors, all of those cars also have a higher base price than the VF8.

A Superior Price and Features Than The Volkswagen ID.4

The VinFast VF8 has a good amount of range for buyers, with the base model having an EPA-estimated 264 miles, which is quite a bit more than the standard Volkswagen ID.4 with just 209 miles and rear-wheel drive. If you want all-wheel drive, ID.4 buyers have to spend roughly an extra $10,000, and the range only jumps to 263. The ID.4 with all-wheel drive has a base MSRP of $50,180 before any options are added, which is about $3,000 more than a well-optioned VF8. Unlike the Volkswagen, which can only tow up to 2,700 lbs in higher trim levels, all VF8 models can tow up to 4,000 lbs when properly equipped.

Faster Than Most For Less

The VinFast is not meant to be a speed demon like some EVs out there. However, it still will get up and go, with a 0-60 mph time of just 5.0 seconds, which is not only faster than the previously mentioned Volkswagen ID.4’s 7.3 seconds, but also quicker than the Hyundai IONIQ 5, IONIQ 6, and Kona EV, as well as the Chevrolet Blazer EV RS’s 6.0 seconds. Amazingly, the VinFast is less expensive than the Chevy’s base price of over $50,000 before adding any options. The VF8 comes standard with a head-up display. However, that is a $2,620 option for the Blazer EV.

Premium Without The Price

The new 2024 Acura ZDX has 278 miles of EV range, which is a little more than the VinFast VF8’s 264 miles. However, the base model’s $64,500 starting price is $18,000 premium, so is that really worth 14 extra miles?

A Warranty That’s Second To None

All of the EV models on the market have a pretty good warranty. The best you will see from most EVs from Chevrolet, Acura, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Honda, Audi, Jaguar, and the like is about 4-5 years up to about 60,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage and ten years or up to 155,000 miles of warranty for the battery system. Every VinFast model comes with a 10-year, 125,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and a 10-year, unlimited-mile battery warranty. That is the pièce de résistance that absolutely no one can compete with.

We look forward to serving you.