80 Percent Of Vinfast Vehicles Sold Remain Internal

Vinfast has been around since 2017 and crossed over to Europe about a year ago. The brand is even attempting to gain a foothold in North America, which is certainly no small hurdle for a newcomer. Vinfast is not just a hobby club, but a division of industry giant VinGroup. That company was founded by Phan Nhat Vuong, who, personally owns no less than 97 percent of Vinfast through direct and indirect interests.

Vuong takes the electric car business seriously and has found partners in BMW (for previous models) and Pininfarina (for design), among others. Vinfast has fresh and modern-looking electric SUVs, but sales are not yet really going smoothly. Last year, 35,000 Vinfasts were sold worldwide. What’s worse is that the vast majority of Vinfasts delivered simply stay within the family.  No less than 70 percent of this number went to GSM, a taxi company that VinGroup boss Vuong also owns. Another 10 percent was for (parts of) VinGroup and therefore actually remained internal. If this is true, only 7,000 Vinfasts would have gone to external customers in 2023.

However, Mr. Vuong is not giving up and says he will invest another $1 billion in Vinfast from his pocket. “The electric car market will continue to grow and will surpass the market for cars with combustion engines. I’m not giving up,” he says firmly.

• Also See: VinFast To Have Another CEO For The Second Time In Less Than 2 Years