To say that Vietnamese electric carmaker VinFast hasn’t had the most graceful arrival to the American market would be an understatement. Its debut product, the VF8 crossover, broke on us during its media drive, and is weirdly expensive at $46,000. Making cars is hard, but cars aren’t the only form of electric transportation. At CES 2024, VinFast dropped an e-bike called the DrgnFly, which is coming to America sporting some truly competitive specs.
Let’s start with the big one — The VinFast DrgnFly claims to offer 63 miles of range, although e-bike range isn’t federally tested. If the real-world results end up anywhere close to that, this could be one serious courier-duty e-bike, or appeal to commuters who don’t want to haul a battery pack up to their apartment every single evening. Since Class 3 e-bikes are limited to 28 mph by law in most states and are generally used for urban transport, more range than a 2018 smart EQ fortwo is hilarious overkill in the best way possible.
Of course, big range usually comes with big costs, but $2,800 doesn’t seem that awful for a long-range e-bike with a two-year, unlimited-mileage warranty. The little Honda Motocompacto scooter is roughly $1,000 for something that can go 15 miles, and a Juiced Bikes CrossCurrent X Step-Through has a range of 65 miles, an MSRP of $1,999, but just a one-year warranty. Oh, and it doesn’t look nearly as cool as the DrgnFly.
That’s the Honda Motocompacto on the left and the Juiced Bikes CrossCurrent X Step-Through on the right, if you’re curious.
Yep, VinFast’s aluminum-framed two-wheeler is properly stylish, with the same sort of focus on design we’re seeing from more expensive e-bikes like the Super73-R. That’s what hiring Red Dot-awarded Danish studio Eskild Hansen will do for you. VinFast claims its e-bike is “reminiscent of the image of a flying dragon – “Thang Long,”” and I’ll certainly admit that it’s striking.
Unusually, this e-bike is a connected vehicle, which is sure to induce groans from the peanut gallery. However, let’s hold off judgement for now, because the digital connection allows for a rather interesting perk. Emphasis mine.
Beyond its striking design and advanced features, the DrgnFly is a connected and smart electric bike. With an embedded 4G connection and a feature-rich companion app, riders can enjoy a range of smart features, including riding modes, remote locking/bike locator (GPS), ride statistics records, and remote diagnostics. Notably, over-the-air (OTA) updates will make sure riders have a consistently optimized vehicle that delivers an amazing experience.
Bike theft is a serious problem, and being able to lock down a stolen e-bike and locate it could make it easier to get a stolen e-bike back. When you’re spending four figures on transportation, you probably want some sort of insurance, and this is as close as you’ll get on an e-bike. Now, there is a flipside to this, because I imagine it would be incredibly aggravating if your bike started updating before a journey, but we’ll just have to see how VinFast approaches connectivity and how well it works.
VinFast plans on bringing the DrgnFly to America first, with roll-out in other markets coming later. Mind you, no official timing has been mentioned, so when it shows up is anyone’s guess.
It would be neat if this thing made it to showrooms soon, as it seems like a reasonable, fashion-forward e-bike for urban commuters and couriers. The office worker would only have to haul this thing’s battery pack up several flights of grimy NYC borough apartment building stairs once in a while, while someone delivering for DoorDash could take some fairly long shifts between charging. While 60 miles takes a long time to complete on something capable of 28 mph flat-out, there are still use cases for a long-range e-bike.
(Photo credits: VinFast, Honda, Juiced Bikes)
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For $2,800 I will just pay Kramer and Newman to pull me around in the rickshaw.
YMMV
Is the battery in the seat?
Do not want thermal runaway in my underbits.
Think of it as an early warning system. As soon as your arse starts getting toasty, it’s time to jump off. 😉
If you are thinking about giving any amount of money to vinfast, I have a great opportunity I’d like to share with you about investing in NFTs and timeshare vacation properties.
I had an e-bike with GPS/remote-locking ability. After a few years, the company stopped supporting it, and I suddenly had an e-bike that was no longer able to unlock itself.
I have also read so many anecdotes of people with GPS on their stolen bikes, going to the police, with current location in hand, only for the cops to say there is nothing they can/will do about it.
I know they had to cut some corners to make that price, but are vowels really that expensive to produce?
Yur mney fr nthing and yur chicks fr free.
Gree.
$250 each
The concept work, but the stolen thing. You can trace something stolen down to the house or see the person with it. Many police will come back with “Nothing we can do”. If you take action to get your property back, now you are the criminal.
Maybe this solution 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U4ZYOBzEEs&ab_channel=Stormcab
That or a signal to trigger a sudden, complete front brake lockup at high speed. Alternatively trigger a catastrophic thermal runaway on its next charge.
Ohhh so sorry you stole a defective bike. Now you get to spend a few months in the hospital.
Is it UL listed?
Certified by Ulaanbaatar Labs
I got to ride a MotoCompacto the other day. It looked fantastic in red. It was smooth and fun in a nice parking lot but I’d hate to take it across a city.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wfQuwT6F4BzhRqvb8
Why are the TopShot folks wearing skateboarding helmets instead of bike helmets? Did VinFast do a presser with the wrong safety gear? That would track for VinFast.
It wasn’t called a Testicle-Remover, the technical term was Scrotum-Slicer.
As an early genXer, this appeals to me. It looks a bit like my 3-speed Schwinn with the convenient Testicle-Removing shifter on the cross bar. Much bigger tires, though.
-and no slick out back: boo!
It wasn’t called a Testicle-Remover, the technical term was Scrotum-Slicer.
(Oops above, clearly clicked the wrong reply)
Is this anything other than just another white label e-moped from Alibaba?
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Super-Super73-Super-Off-Road-Z_1600824595276.html?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.p_offer.d_title.3eeb555eFBIJ6X&s=p
You’d figure if they were going to stick their name on something they’d at least go with one of the full suspension ones and reenforce the frame since the generic ones are known to crumple occasionally.
That shows a range of 40-60 km, so VinFast would need to lie about range or somehow increase it to make this be that. And they have the production capability to make these. I think things just look similar because there are really only so many ways to efficiently build an e-bike.
There’s a bunch of factories making identical ones, this was just an example. If you’ve ever ordered anything from Alibaba, you can spec them however you want. You can claim anything for mileage, it’s a useless metric since you can pedal and add your own range.
Vinfast is lying about range. The battery size does not look even remotely close to being able to accomplish that range.
Their excuse is like many, its based off of a woman weighing 100 lbs on level 1 pedal assist and pedaling a lot which is not how anyone rides these types of bikes like the DRGNFLY.
That’s actually a clone of a Super73…but you’re probably not far off.
Seems like that design studio ordered some Alibaba e-mopeds, switched the Chinese stock app font to Helvetica and drop shipped them to a few of Vinfast’s dealers. Looks like it even still has the generic ebike battery that slides under the seat. Hopefully they at least got UL & TUV certs. Probably why they didn’t post any specs – if it’s got a zoom fork and Shimano 7 speed tourney stuff well then you know…
At least that one has a “duel battery” so you can go drag racing with it 😉
I assumed it converted to a musket pistol suited for shooting at ten paces.