Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Vietnam's VinFast looks to tiny EV, priced at less than
$10,000, to change its fortunes (1/2)
AP -Aniruddha Ghosal
Tue, June 25, 2024 at 4:08 a.m. PDT·6 min read
Idle factories bleed money and the company’s financial health is at stake. After finding the U.S. market a tough nut to crack, Vinfast is hoping its tiniest and cheapest car yet — a roughly 10-foot-long pure battery electric mini-SUV priced at $9,200 and called the VF3 — will become Vietnam’s “national car” and win over consumers in Asian markets.
Designed specifically for the Vietnamese and other Asian markets, the VF3 is priced for “mass appeal”, according to VinFast. It expects bigger sales for it than from earlier models that were meant mainly for export to western countries, Le Thi Thuy, Vingroup's chairperson, said in an earnings call in April.
VinFast was dreaming of breaking into the big leagues of global automakers when it launched sales in the U.S. last year and listed its shares on the Nasdaq, where its market value briefly surpassed those of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. in late August.
Investor enthusiasm has since cooled, and its shares are trading below $4 from a peak of $82.35. VinFast is facing delays in construction of a $4 billion factory in North Carolina, where the company said in an email that it is reviewing and evaluating “all aspects of the construction process.” It's facing legal troubles over a crash that killed four people in California. It's also dealing with allegations of patent infringement.
VinFast’s future matters for Vietnam, both because its ambitions dovetail with the Communist Party’s own goals, and because of parent company Vingroup's large role in the Vietnamese economy. The conglomerate began as an instant noodle company in Ukraine in 1990s and now runs all sorts of businesses.
VinFast reported a net loss of $2.39 billion last year, despite a 90% increase in revenue. To patch its tattered finances, Vingroup recently sold its profitable commercial property arm, Vincom Retail. Vingroup's founder, Pham Nhat Vuong, has committed $1 billion of his personal wealth, on top of the $11.4 billion of financing the parent company injected into VinFast in 2017-2023, according to a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We will never let VinFast go,” he told Vingroup shareholders at their annual general meeting in April, according to state media.
The VF3 initially will be sold in emerging markets in Asia, where car buyers graduating from motorcycles to four-wheelers might not be as finnicky as Americans, said Tu Le, the founder of the consultancy Sino Auto Insights.
Just 3.1-meters-long, and 1.6 meters wide and high (10 feet long and 5.2 feet wide and high), it can squeeze into narrow lanes in Asian cities, but still seats five people.
(to be continued)
Translation
越南河內（美聯社）— 越南汽車製造商 VinFast 曾經成為全球第三大最有價值的汽車公司，但它面臨一個大問題：它無法銷售足夠的汽車。
閒置的工廠大量流失資金，公司的財務健康受到威脅。在發現美國市場是一個棘手的難題後，Vinfast 希望其迄今為止最小、最便宜的汽車 - 即一款長約10 英尺的純電動迷你SUV，售價9,200 美元，名為VF3 - 將可成為越南的 “國民汽車”，並贏得亞洲市場的消費者。
據 VinFast 稱，VF3 專為越南和其他亞洲市場設計，其定價位於「對大眾吸有引力」。 Vingroup 董事長 Le Thi Thuy 在 4 月的財報電話會議上表示，預計這款產品的銷量將高於主要出口到西方國家的早期型號。
VinFast去年在美國上市並在納斯達克上市時，就夢想著躋身全球汽車製造商的大聯盟，其市值於8月下旬一度超過通用汽車公司和福特汽車公司。
此後，投資者的熱情逐漸降溫，其股價從 82.35 美元的峰值跌至 4 美元以下。 VinFast 在北卡羅來納州投資 40 億美元的工廠建設面臨延誤，該公司在一封電子郵件中表示，正在審查和評估「建設過程的各個方面」。該公司因加州發生的導致四人死亡的車禍而面臨法律麻煩。它還正在處理專利侵權指控。
VinFast 的未來對越南很重要，一方面是因為它的雄心壯志與共產黨自己的目標相吻合，另一方面是因為母公司 Vingroup 在越南經濟中發揮重要作用。該集團於 20 世紀 90 年代在烏克蘭成立，最初是一家泡麵公司，現在經營各種業務。
VinFast 報告去年淨虧損 23.9 億美元，儘管收入成長了 90%。為了修補其破爛的財務狀況，Vingroup 最近出售了其有盈利的商業房地產部門 Vincom Retail。根據向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，Vingroup 的創始人Pham Nhat Vuong 已承諾將其個人財富中的10 億美元投入其中，而母公司在2017 年至2023 年期間向 VinFast 注入了114 億美元的資金。
據官方媒體報道，他在 4 月的 Vingroup 股東年度股東大會上表示： “我們永遠不會放棄 VinFast。”
顧問公司 Sino Auto Insights 的創辦人 Tu Le表示，VF3最初將在亞洲新興市場銷售，那裡的汽車購買者從摩托車進階到四輪車, 可能不會像美國人那麼挑剔。
汽車只有 3.1 公尺長、1.6 公尺寬和高（10
英尺長、5.2
英尺寬和高），可以擠進亞洲城市的狹窄巷子，但仍可容納
5 人。
（待續）
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