The VF 8 Reflects a Shift Toward No-Compromise Electric Vehicles
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MARKHAM, Ontario — Electric vehicles are entering a new phase, where buyers no longer accept trade-offs in range, comfort, or price. With its balanced design and features, the VinFast VF 8 illustrates how the market is shifting toward more complete, no-compromise offerings.
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Early adopters put up with plenty of drawbacks. Range anxiety, software incompleteness, and higher price tags were all accepted as necessary trade-offs. They bought into a promise rather than a finished product. Not anymore.
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As EVs push toward mainstream adoption, the market has matured, at least in developed ones like Canada. Mainstream consumers now judge electric cars against the gas-powered vehicles they've driven for decades. These buyers aren't environmental crusaders willing to sacrifice comfort or convenience. They're practical people making practical decisions.
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A recent AutoTrader survey highlights that interest in EVs in Canada has dropped for three consecutive years, with 78% of consumers citing limited range as their primary concern. The second biggest worry is cost: Despite falling prices, electric vehicles still command a 15-20% premium over conventional alternatives 1.
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This matters because today's car buyers are more discerning than ever. They're tech-savvy and design-conscious but also value-driven. They want vehicles that work for their lifestyle without compromise. The 'good enough for an EV' mentality is disappearing fast.
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Traditional automakers built their reputations on specific strengths. Some are known for their cars' performance, others comfort, reliability, or affordability. Few excelled across all categories.
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But the new benchmark and the new financial circumstance, amid the tariff situation, requires delivering high standards on multiple fronts simultaneously. Range anxiety remains the top concern, but buyers also expect intuitive technology, competitive pricing, and thoughtful design. Meeting just one or two of these expectations isn't enough anymore.
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This challenge is pushing automakers to innovate faster. Companies are racing to develop batteries with greater energy density, more efficient motors, and smarter software. They're exploring new designs that maximize interior space while maintaining aerodynamic efficiency.
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Amid this context, the VinFast VF 8 represents a new approach in the EV market that delivers a balanced combination of performance, technology, design, comfort, and value rather than excelling in just one area.
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On the road, this electric SUV provides acceleration comparable to many luxury models. Its dual-motor all-wheel-drive system ensures confident handling in various conditions, while offering a range of up to 412 km per charge, sufficient for both daily commutes and weekend getaways.
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Design-wise, the VF 8 strikes a perfect balance between distinctive and conventional. It achieves aerodynamic efficiency without resorting to the quirky styling often seen in EVs. The interior features spacious seating, premium materials, and thoughtful storage solutions. The climate control system intelligently balances comfort and battery preservation, while the ride quality remains refined on highways and capable over rougher surfaces, matching that of more established automotive brands.
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The technology experience centers around a 15.6-inch customizable touchscreen that combines familiar controls with advanced capabilities. The interface proves intuitive and accessible, with over-the-air updates ensuring the operating system stays current.
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Enhancing the ownership experience is the VinFast C-App, which enables remote vehicle monitoring, function control, navigation, and roadside assistance access. This app also provides access to 95% of public charging stations throughout North America, making sure drivers can find a place to charge almost anywhere. Canadian customers benefit further from an industry-leading 10-year/200,000 km warranty coverage.
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All this comes at a price point meant to attract mainstream buyers, not just luxury shoppers.
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This matters because many potential EV buyers remain unconvinced. They're interested but hesitant, waiting for vehicles that truly meet their needs without asking them to adjust their lifestyle. Cars like the VF 8 could shift these perceptions and accelerate mainstream adoption.
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'Good enough' no longer inspires confidence. The future belongs to vehicles that can deliver it all. As competition intensifies, consumers will reap the benefits of better cars at better prices. Models like the VF 8 show that striking this balance is possible.
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CTV News
42 minutes ago
- CTV News
What it would take to convert a jet from Qatar into Air Force One to safely fly Trump
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump really wants to fly on an upgraded Air Force One — but making that happen could depend on whether he's willing to cut corners with security. As government lawyers sort out the legal arrangement for accepting a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, another crucial conversation is unfolding about modifying the plane so it's safe for the American president. Installing capabilities equivalent to the decades-old 747s now used as Air Force One would almost certainly consign the project to a similar fate as Boeing's replacement initiative, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers Thursday that those security modifications would cost less than US$400 million but provided no details. Satisfying Trump's desire to use the new plane before the end of his term could require leaving out some of those precautions, however. A White House official said Trump wants the Qatari jet ready as soon as possible while adhering to security standards. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not provide details on equipment issues or the timeline. Trump has survived two assassination attempts, and Iran allegedly also plotted to kill him, so he's well aware of the danger he faces. However, he seems willing to take some chances with security, particularly when it comes to communications. For example, he likes to keep his personal phone handy despite the threat of hacks. He boasted this week that the government got the jet 'for free,' saying, 'We need it as Air Force One until the other ones are done.' Here's a look at what it would take to make the Qatari plane into a presidential transport: What makes a plane worthy of being Air Force One? Air Force One is the call sign for any plane that's carrying the president. The first aircraft to get the designation was a propeller-powered C-54 Skymaster, which ferried Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in 1945. It featured a conference room with a bulletproof window. Things are a lot more complicated these days. Boeing has spent years stripping down and rebuilding two 747s to replace the versions that have carried presidents for more than three decades. The project is slated to cost more than $5.3 billion and may not be finished before Trump leaves office. A 2021 report made public through the Freedom of Information Act outlines the unclassified requirements for the replacement 747s under construction. At the top of the list — survivability and communications. The government decided more than a decade ago that the new planes had to have four engines so they could remain airborne if one or two fail, said Deborah Lee James, who was Air Force secretary at the time. That creates a challenge because 747s are no longer manufactured, which could make spare parts harder to come by. Air Force One also has to have the highest level of classified communications, anti-jamming capabilities and external protections against foreign surveillance, so the president can securely command military forces and nuclear weapons during a national emergency. It's an extremely sensitive and complex system, including video, voice and data transmissions. James said there are anti-missile measures and shielding against radiation or an electromagnetic pulse that could be caused by a nuclear blast. 'The point is, it remains in flight no matter what,' she said. Will Trump want all the security bells and whistles? If the Qatari plane is retrofitted to presidential standards, it could cost $1.5 billion and take years, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that aren't publicly available. Testifying before Congress this week, Meink discounted such estimates, arguing that some of the costs associated with retrofitting the Qatari plane would have been spent anyway as the Air Force moves to build the long-delayed new presidential planes, including buying aircraft for training and to have spares available if needed. In response, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said that based on the contract costs for the planes that the Air Force is building, it would cost about $1 billion to strip down the Qatar plane, install encrypted communications, harden its defenses and make other required upgrades. James said simply redoing the wiring means 'you'd have to break that whole thing wide open and almost start from scratch.' Trump, as commander in chief, could waive some of these requirements. He could decide to skip shielding systems from an electromagnetic pulse, leaving his communications more vulnerable in case of a disaster but shaving time off the project. After all, Boeing has already scaled back its original plans for the new 747s. Their range was trimmed by 1,200 nautical miles, and the ability to refuel while airborne was scrapped. Paul Eckloff, a former leader of protection details at the Secret Service, expects the president would get the final say. 'The Secret Service's job is to plan for and mitigate risk,' he said. 'It can never eliminate it.' If Trump does waive some requirements, James said that should be kept under wraps because 'you don't want to advertise to your potential adversaries what the vulnerabilities of this new aircraft might be.' It's unlikely that Trump will want to skimp on the plane's appearance. He keeps a model of a new Air Force One in the Oval Office, complete with a darker color scheme that echoes his personal jet instead of the light blue design that's been used for decades. What happens next? Trump toured the Qatari plane in February when it was parked at an airport near Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort. Air Force chief of staff Gen. David Allvin was there, too. The U.S. official said the jet needs maintenance but not more than what would be expected of a four-engine plane of its complexity. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it would be irresponsible to put the president and national security equipment aboard the Qatari plane 'without knowing that the aircraft is fully capable of withstanding a nuclear attack.' 'It's a waste of taxpayer dollars,' she said. Meanwhile, Boeing's project has been hampered by stress corrosion cracks on the planes and excessive noise in the cabins from the decompression system, among other issues that have delayed delivery, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last year. Boeing referred questions to the U.S. Air Force, which said in a statement that it's working with the aircraft manufacturer to find ways to accelerate the delivery of at least one of the 747s. Even so, the aircraft will have to be tested and flown in real-world conditions to ensure no other issues. James said it remains to be seen how Trump would handle any of those challenges. 'The normal course of business would say there could be delays in certifications,' she said. 'But things seem to get waived these days when the president wants it.' AP writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report. Tara Copp And Chris Megerian, The Associated Press


CTV News
42 minutes ago
- CTV News
Bank of Canada head Tiff Macklem says mandate should evolve in a ‘shock-prone' world
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem takes part in an interview at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick OTTAWA — Tiff Macklem is wearing an Edmonton Oilers pin as he reflects on coming very close to beating big odds. It's a significant day for the governor of the Bank of Canada: he's just laid out his reasons to the entire country and a global audience for keeping the central bank's benchmark interest rate steady for a second straight time. That night is also Game 1 of the NHL's Stanley Cup finals; Macklem ends his press conference with a hearty 'Go Oilers!' It's a rematch from last year's heartbreak, when the Oilers came oh-so-close to mounting a seemingly impossible four-game comeback against the Florida Panthers, only to fall short by a single goal in Game 7. Macklem, too, was almost safe to declare victory last year. He had just about secured a coveted 'soft landing' for Canada's economy — a rare feat that sees restrictive monetary policy bring down surging levels of inflation without tipping the economy into a prolonged downturn. 'We got inflation down. We didn't cause a recession,' Macklem said in an interview with The Canadian Press after the rate announcement Wednesday. 'And, to be frank, until President (Donald) Trump started threatening the economy with new tariffs, we were actually seeing growth pick up.' Fresh out of one crisis, the central bank now must contend with another in U.S. tariffs. Five years into his tenure as head of the Bank of Canada, Macklem said he sees the central bank's role in stickhandling the economy — as well as Canada's role on the world stage — evolving. Many Canadians have become more familiar with the Bank of Canada in recent years. After the COVID-19 pandemic recovery ignited inflation, the central bank's rapid tightening cycle and subsequent rate cuts were top-line news for anxious Canadians stressed about rising prices and borrowing costs. That was all in pursuit of meeting the central bank's inflation target of two per cent, part of a mandate from the federal government that's up for review next year. Macklem said the past few years have led the Bank of Canada to scrutinize some of its metrics, like core inflation and how it responds to supply shocks in the economy. But he defends keeping the bank's inflation target, particularly at a time of global upheaval. 'Our flexible inflation targeting framework has just been through the biggest test it's ever had in the 30 years since we announced the inflation target,' he said. 'I'm not going to pretend it's been an easy few years for anybody. But I think the framework has performed well.' Macklem said, however, that he sees room to build out the mandate to address other areas of concern from Canadians, such as housing affordability. Whether it's the high cost of rent or a mortgage, or surging prices for groceries and vehicles, Macklem said the past few years have been eye-opening to Canadians who weren't around the last time inflation hit double digits in the 1980s. 'Unfortunately, a whole new generation of Canadians now know what inflation feels like, and they didn't like it one bit,' he said. Monetary policy itself can't make homes more affordable, he noted — in a nutshell, high interest rates make mortgages more expensive while low rates can push up the price of housing itself because they stoke demand. But Macklem said one of the things he's reflecting on is that inflation can get worse when the economy isn't operating at its potential or when it's facing great disruption. 'There is a role for monetary policy to smooth out some of that adjustment — support the economy while ensuring that inflation is well-controlled.' He didn't offer suggestions on how the mandate might expand to address housing affordability specifically, but said 'the work is ongoing' and will be settled in meetings with the federal government next year. Right now, he's trying to make sure that the economic impacts from Canada's tariff dispute with the United States don't result in prolonged inflation. The Bank of Canada is not alone in debating how monetary policy ought to respond in what Macklem called a more 'shock-prone' world. The G7 Finance Ministers' Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., last month also featured roundtables with the bloc's central bankers. Conversations at the summit were 'candid,' Macklem said, and though the nations issued a joint statement at the close of the event, that doesn't mean they agreed on everything. 'International co-operation, to be honest, has never been easy. It is particularly difficult right now, but that doesn't make it less important. That makes it more important,' he said. 'I do think Canada, as the chair of the G7, has a leadership role to play.' The Bank of Canada is also changing the way it has conversations with Canadians and the kind of data it considers. A day after the June interest rate decision, deputy governor Sharon Kozicki told a Toronto business crowd how the central bank is using data more nimbly, relying heavily on surveys and more granular information to make monetary policy decisions in an uncertain time. These sources offer a faster way to see what's happening on the ground in the economy than traditional statistical models allow. Macklem said the central bank would previously have dismissed most supply shocks as transitory — likely to pass without the need for central bank adjustments, such as rising and falling oil prices. But he said the Bank of Canada needs to be running a more 'nuanced playbook' now to respond to some increasingly common shocks: supply chain disruptions, trade conflicts and extreme weather to name a few. An overheating economy running up against a supply disruption is the kind of inflationary fire Macklem is trying to avoid in this latest crisis. 'The economy does not work well when inflation is high,' he said. 'And the primary role of the Bank of Canada is to ensure that Canadians maintain confidence in price stability. That's all we can do for the Canadian economy. That's what we can do for Canadians. And that's what we're focused on.' Later in the day on Wednesday, the Edmonton Oilers took Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. The Canadian team was down but roared back to win 4-3 in overtime. It's still early in the Bank of Canada's response to the latest global shock. But with any luck, Macklem's team might also get a leg up with lessons learned the last time they faced big odds. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2025. Craig Lord, The Canadian Press


Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Road lines fading faster after environmental rule, say local politicians – raising costs and safety concerns
Municipalities across the country say a government regulation that limits a group of chemicals used in painting road lines is hitting their budgets hard. Without the chemicals, they say, road lines fade more quickly, putting drivers at risk and forcing municipalities to repaint them more often. 'It seems like something small but it's actually something that affects every municipality across the country,' said Tim Tierney, vice-president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and an Ottawa city councillor. The federal regulations limit the allowable concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) − chemicals in paint products used for road markings − to 150 grams per litre in those products from 450. VOCs are also found in nail polish and hairsprays. The lower limit is required only from May 1 to Oct. 15, when the weather is mild and air pollution is a concern. These are the months during which most municipalities paint their road lines. The regulations by Environment and Climate Change Canada were put forward because VOCs contribute to the formation of both particulate matter and ground-level ozone, which are the two main components of smog. 'Health impacts from smog include irritated eyes, nose and throat. Smog can worsen existing heart and lung problems or may cause lung cancer with regular long-term exposure,' spokesperson Brandon Clim said in a statement. Gary LeRoux, president of the Canadian Coatings Association, said a steep drop in VOC concentration results in 'inherent issues with adhesion and durability.' Councillors across the country say the regulations overlook safety concerns on roads. They say municipalities now require multiple rounds of repaints a year as fading road lines continue to put drivers, pedestrians and motorists' lives at risk. Clark Somerville, councillor for the Town of Halton Hills and the region of Halton, said the regulation is ultimately costing Canadian taxpayers more, with their money being spent 'unnecessarily.' 'As the road painting is disappearing quicker, we are now spending taxpayers dollars to go out and repaint the roads more than what we had to before,' Mr. Somerville said. Rural municipalities say it's particularly an issue for them because their roads are darker and more dangerous at night. 'Anyone that gets behind a vehicle knows how important and key it is to have those lines on the road,' said Kara Westerlund, president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta and councillor for Brazeau County. 'Especially when you're in rural areas where we don't have [adequate] street lighting.' Ms. Westerlund, who represents 69 rural municipalities in Alberta, said it's not just councillors or elected officials who have been raising this issue. She said first responders, police services and volunteer firefighters are pointing to disappearing road markings to explain some road accidents. 'It's really tough because everyone wants to be a good steward to the environment, but I just think we have to pick and choose our battles,' said Mr. Tierney, the Ottawa councillor. 'And safety is a real one.' While councillors such as Mr. Somerville are calling for more funding to cover the cost of keeping up road lines, arguing that municipalities do not have the necessary 'wiggle room' in their budgets, Ms. Westerlund said more attention should be paid to the paint. 'Before throwing more funding at crews to paint the lines, let's get to the root of the issue and that is the paint itself,' Ms. Westerlund said. 'Let's find solutions there and move forward from there.' Mr. Clim, the Environment Canada spokesperson, said other factors also determine how long road markings last – traffic volume, weather conditions and how snow and ice are managed. The department 'has not received any technical information indicating that the VOC limits for traffic markings affect the product's performance,' Mr. Clim said. David Saucier, director of issues management at the Canadian Coatings Association, said the federal government should go back to the drawing board and consult industry experts. 'What are we compromising here?' Mr. Saucier said. 'If we're going to compromise health and safety for pedestrians and motorists, what are we saving?' Mr. Tierney said the regulation has had a positive impact when applied to products such as hairsprays or nail polish, 'even wall paint.' 'But when it comes to road painting specifically there doesn't seem to be a magic formula to make it work yet.'