“ VinFast - one of the newest players in the electric car market”, host and journalist Julia Chatterly opened First Move with an introduction to VinFast and its impressive debut on Nasdaq as well as its plans to expand operations in the US with the groundbreaking of a factory in North Carolina.
- Congratulations to VinFast on completing its listing last week. I think it is an important milestone for Vingroup Corporation, but also a memorable moment for you and your colleagues at VinFast. How do you feel?
It's exciting! We're very surprised by the reception from the market. We think the market recognizes our capabilities, and you know, the market needs people like us.
- Can you share about VinFast's plans after listing?
We have big plans ahead. We have successfully listed and believe that the general market is recovering and will help VinFast in raising capital in the future. We currently have support from parent company Vingroup and Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong with a commitment of $2.5 billion in funding, which will help us operate to break-even and become profitable. We are building a factory in North Carolina, focusing on manufacturing and delivering vehicles, and are expanding to other markets, including North America, Vietnam, and soon Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
- Why is VinFast confident that it can compete in the US market, where there are many big electric car brands like Tesla?
I think you just mentioned the reason! The US is a very difficult and challenging market. If we can succeed in the US, we can build a brand and succeed anywhere. We believe in a strong future in the US, especially with the new business model - the hybrid model (the brand's own retail system combined with cooperation with the distributor system) will help VinFast expand the market more quickly. We have received enthusiastic interest from many states.
In addition, from a general perspective, when the market is shifting strongly from gasoline cars to electric cars, it means that there is still a lot of room and enough room for new electric car brands. And we believe that VinFast can conquer the market.
- Could you please share more about the production capacity at the factories?
The factory in Vietnam can reach a capacity of 300,000 units/year and we have plans to expand the scale to 950,000 units/year. The advantage in labor costs, along with a sustainable supply chain, has created a great competitive advantage for VinFast. In addition, the North Carolina factory will operate with a capacity of 150,000 units/year and can also expand production scale according to market demand.
- It is known that the VF 8 is currently priced from about 46 thousand USD (about 1.1 billion VND) and the VF 9 will be coming soon. Could you please share about the number of pre-orders for the VF 9 and whether this number will increase further after listing?
Right now, we have about 26,000 orders globally and about 10,000 orders in the US, and two-thirds of those are pre-orders for the VF 9. A lot of customers are waiting to receive this model in the US.
- What are the difficulties that electric car companies are facing and what is preventing customers from accessing the product? Is it about price, charging station system… or not?
The US charging station system has been widely developed. VinFast can connect to more than 73,000 charging stations in the US. With the development of the charging station system and the existing partner system, we are confident that this is not a big problem.
The challenge, I think, is to create a product that is affordable for everyone. So our mission is to make electric vehicles accessible to everyone. That’s why we have launched a complete product line from the smallest car, the VF 3 minicar, to the VF 9, a full-size, three-row SUV.
- Currently, investors only have a very small portion (1%) of shares to invest, do they have any opportunities in the future when VinFast wants to raise capital?
We will continue to explore investment opportunities as the market evolves. A larger offering is expected to occur in the next six months to a year.
Phuc Minh
“First Move with Julia Chatterley” is CNN's flagship business program, airing at 9 a.m. (US time) every day and broadcast live from the New York Stock Exchange.
The criteria for appearing in this program is that the business has made a breakthrough transformation and has impressive development prospects. In addition to the representative of Vingroup, host Julia Chatterley has talked with many famous leaders from brands such as Mr. Reid Hoffman - co-founder of the social network Linkedin, Chairman of Emirates Airlines - Mr. Tim Clark, Chairman of Cisco - Mr. Chuck Robins...
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