HANOI — Vietnamese electrical car (EV) maker VinFast on Thursday mentioned its fourth-quarter internet loss deepened 3.4% from the earlier three months but it surely goals to almost triple car gross sales this yr because it expands into new markets.
VinFast’s internet losses within the last quarter of 2023 reached $650.1 million, additionally 1.3% increased than the identical interval of 2022.
It plans to extend deliveries to 100,000 items this yr, in contrast with the virtually 35,000 made in 2023, when it missed a 50,000 unit goal on account of sluggish EV adoption in some areas and elevated value competitors.
“This yr, we develop globally and have all of the autos, together with the right-hand drive mannequin. So we’re assured that we’re going to obtain the steerage,” chairwoman Le Thi Thu Thuy advised Reuters after the earnings had been launched.
Different automakers, in distinction, have slashed EV gross sales targets and curtailed funding plans on account of weakening demand in main markets resembling the USA.
VinFast, which launched U.S. gross sales in March final yr with its VF 8 sport utility car, depends closely on home demand, with round 70% of deliveries going to its affiliate Inexperienced SM (GSM), a taxi operator and leasing supplier backed by VinFast CEO Pham Nhat Vuong.
Fewer than 1,000 items had been offered in North America, Thuy mentioned, including that new dealerships would increase VinFast’s gross sales this yr in comparison with its direct gross sales mannequin.
Fourth-quarter income reached $437 million, lacking a median analyst estimate of $570.9 million, in line with LSEG information. Full-year income was up 91% at $1.2 billion.
India and Indonesia
Based in 2017 and making EVs since 2021, VinFast has introduced quite a few EV progress plans abroad. It’s developing a manufacturing unit in North Carolina, which is predicted to launch in 2025, and planning its first manufacturing services in India.
Thuy mentioned the corporate was focusing on “two massive markets”, Indonesia and India, the place it could implement a battery leasing scheme with prospects paying a month-to-month payment the identical or decrease than the gasoline price for equal autos.
“We count on to launch factories in India and Indonesia in 2026,” Thuy mentioned, including that till then its Vietnam plant is ready to provide vehicles to the U.S and different markets.
VinFast’s market capitalisation surged to $85 billion — increased than that of legacy U.S. automaker Ford — after its Nasdaq debut in August, but it surely has since slumped to $12 billion, with its U.S. market entry coinciding with intensifying value competitors led by market chief Tesla.
Shares in VinFast, backed by Vietnam’s largest conglomerate Vingroup had been down 2.66% in premarket buying and selling.
Based on Thuy, after a blackout interval ends on Feb. 26, VinFast will begin a fundraising course of because it seems to extend the variety of shares obtainable for public buying and selling to 10-20% by the top of the yr from round 2% at the moment.
