VinFast is having a pretty brutal time right now, but that hasn’t stopped the nascent Vietnamese automaker from being optimistic about its future. Sure, it managed to have a $650.1 million net loss in the last quarter of 2023, and sure it sold fewer than 35,000 vehicles all of last year, but that isn’t going to stop VinFast!
On February 22, VinFast said its fourth-quarter net loss deepened 3.4 percent from the previous three months, but it is going to somehow triple the number of vehicles it will sell this year as it expands. The automaker plans to increase deliveries to 100,000 units in 2024, a huge jump over the nearly 35,000 vehicles it sold in 2023, according to Reuters. That number also represents VinFast missing its sales goal of 50,000 units by a very wide margin due to slow EV adoption in some parts of the world and better, well, competition.
VinFast Chairwoman Le Thi Thu Thuy told Reuters the company is “confident” it’ll reach its goal for 2024 because of a global expansion with more models. On the flip side of the coin, other automakers have slashed EV sales targets and cut investment plans because of weakening demand for electric vehicles.
Here’s a little more information on how VinFast is doing in terms of sales (spoiler: it’s not very good), from Reuters:
VinFast, which launched U.S. sales in March last year with its VF 8 sport utility vehicle, relies heavily on domestic demand, with around 70% of deliveries going to its affiliate Green SM (GSM), a taxi operator and leasing provider backed by VinFast CEO Pham Nhat Vuong.
Fewer than 1,000 units were sold in North America, Thuy said, adding that new dealerships would boost VinFast’s sales this year compared to its direct sales model.
Fourth-quarter revenue reached $437 million, missing an average analyst estimate of $570.9 million, according to LSEG data. Full-year revenue was up 91% at $1.2 billion.
VinFast has also announced a number of EV growth plans for overseas markets, is currently building a factory in North Carolina that should be up and running in 2025 and it’s planning its first manufacturing facilities in India and Indonesia that’ll be built in 2026.
Those two countries will be pivotal for VinFast’s future. It’s planning to implement its battery leasing scheme that’ll allow customers to pay a monthly fee that’ll be the same or lower than gasoline costs in equivalent vehicles.