VinFast, Vietnam’s electric vehicle maker, is rapidly expanding its presence in overseas markets. The company announced on Monday that it had shipped a second batch of 1,879 VF 8 sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to North America, with 1,098 of them destined for California and the rest going to Canada.
This move follows the shipment of 999 VF 8 SUVs to California in November 2022. However, the company needed until March 2023 to prepare them for delivery to customers after disclosing the car would have a lower battery range than it had flagged to buyers.
VinFast, backed by Vietnam’s largest conglomerate Vingroup, aims to export a first batch of 700 VF 8 vehicles to Europe in mid-July this year and will soon open global reservations for two new models.
Currently, VinFast is offering a monthly lease price of $399 for the VF 8 City Edition model for a 24-month lease. The company, which began operations in 2019, has an annual production capacity of 250,000 and delivered 865 VF 8 units domestically in the first quarter of this year.
VinFast has secured 55,000 orders globally as of December last year, with 12,000 of them from the U.S. market. It plans to expand further in the U.S. market and will build a production plant in North Carolina, expected to open in 2025.
To fund its expansion, VinFast filed for an initial public offering in the United States to list on the Nasdaq last year. It posted a loss of $2.1 billion in 2022 on revenue of $634 million, according to a registration statement for the listing.
As the electric vehicle market continues to grow, VinFast’s expansion strategy is sure to attract attention from investors and competitors alike.
