After a rather “stunning” presentation of its products and big commercial ambitions, including the acquisition of huge branches in some places, for example in Lyon with the acquisition of a very large Opel dealership, VinFast’s meteoric rise appears to be stalling.

It must be said that the Vietnamese brand, which wanted to follow Tesla’s example to a certain extent, went above and beyond, as evidenced by the VF8 and VF9 SUVs. Unfortunately, the initial media coverage was not as good as expected. Therefore, it is difficult to justify such high prices when the product does not come close to the European brand model at the same price.

Not profitable so soon?

In France, the base VF8 starts at just under €51,000, while the VF9 commands over €90,000. The good thing is that according to the VinFast website, the manufacturer quickly refused the offer to rent the battery.

Despite everything, VinFast CEO Pham Nhat Vuong remains optimistic, even if the manufacturer is not expected to be profitable for several years.

Indeed, according to a member of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, there is still time to spend: “Vinfast probably won’t be profitable for at least the next 5 years. According to the steering committee, the amount of damages is more than 782.6 million dollars per year. »

Reassure through communication?

At Vinfast’s last annual general meeting, the CEO was reassuring and announced a recent production increase and plans to sell 50,000 cars in 2023, while aiming to break even next year. He also announced the electric pickup project and mentioned developing a small electric car that would sell for $10,000 to $12,000.

Indeed, in terms of communication, VinFast also seems to be inspired by Tesla, except that the American manufacturer seems to be quite confident when announcing a model, even if it appears several years later.

It also remains to be seen whether this model will apply to us in Europe, and if so, it certainly won’t sell for around €10,000 at the base price because of the standards that must be met, in particular with regard to safety, which obviously involves additional costs that will be passed on to the final price.