HANOI — Vietnamese electrical automobile (EV) maker VinFast on Thursday mentioned its fourth-quarter internet loss deepened 3.4% from the earlier three months but it surely goals to just about triple automobile 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% larger than the identical interval of 2022.
It plans to extend deliveries to 100,000 models this yr, in contrast with the just about 35,000 made in 2023, when it missed a 50,000 unit goal because of sluggish EV adoption in some areas and elevated value competitors.
“This year, we expand globally and have all the vehicles, including the right-hand drive model. So we are confident that we are going to achieve the guidance,” chairwoman Le Thi Thu Thuy advised Reuters after the earnings have been launched.
Different automakers, in distinction, have slashed EV gross sales targets and curtailed funding plans because of weakening demand in main markets corresponding to the USA.
VinFast, which launched U.S. gross sales in March final yr with its VF 8 sport utility automobile, 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 models have been bought 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 development plans abroad. It’s developing a manufacturing unit in North Carolina, which is anticipated to launch in 2025, and planning its first manufacturing amenities in India.
Thuy mentioned the corporate was concentrating on “two big markets”, Indonesia and India, the place it could implement a battery leasing scheme with prospects paying a month-to-month charge the identical or decrease than the gasoline value for equal automobiles.
“We expect 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 — larger 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 have 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 appears to be like to extend the variety of shares accessible for public buying and selling to 10-20% by the top of the yr from round 2% presently.