Vietnamese manufacturer VinFast is trying to make a breakthrough in Europe and the US with its electric SUVs. For this, the company has done its best by releasing two fairly high-quality products.

The problem is that VinFast is not necessarily achieving the expected success, especially after initial press tests that are not very encouraging, a non-existent brand image and products that are mostly quite expensive.

A thunderous debut… on the stock market

VinFast was founded in 2018 and is owned by the powerful private conglomerate Vingroup. VinFast’s rapid rise in the stock market was one of the notable events of 2023 for the company.

In August, when it entered the stock market, the Vietnamese manufacturer quickly became the third largest manufacturer in the world by capitalization, yielding to the giants Toyota and Tesla. That surge proved short-lived, however, and VinFast shares have since fallen below their initial value, disconcerting investors.

Let’s say that the news surrounding the brand does not necessarily help to maintain a high price, since, according to the American media, VinFast artificially inflated its sales. The Vingroup-owned taxi company has reportedly acquired nearly 62% of VinFast vehicles sold worldwide in the first half of 2023.

This practice was discovered by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which also highlighted the near-total control over the company’s actions by Pham Nhat Vuong, president of VinFast. Pham Nhat Vuong owns 51% of Vingroup, which has a majority stake in VinFast.

In addition, he is the largest shareholder of Vietnam Investment Group, a consortium that together with Vingroup owns shares in VinFast. After all, only a tiny fraction, or 0.3% of VinFast’s stock, appears to be really available to investors.

Sales that are not developing

The Vietnamese manufacturer also faced difficulties related to the admission of its cars in Europe. However, the head of the company recently said that these problems have already been solved. VinFast recently launched the VF8 on the French market, a 4.75 meter long electric SUV with a starting price of around €50,000.

The VF8 comes with an attractive 10-year or 200,000km warranty. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, this car has become the object of numerous criticisms from the specialized press of the United States. mainly due to the low efficiency of electricity consumption.

However, VinFast’s marketing teams have no shortage of ideas to get people talking about the brand, as recently, and we reported it to you on Auto Plus, VinFast adopted a hitherto unpublished after-sales service policy: the manufacturer offers to compensate its customers if there is a problem with one of the vehicles means Not sure if this will help sales growth, especially since the distribution network is trying to get tighter.

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