Vinfast Stock Opens On The Nasdaq With 255 Percent Jump
Vietnamese electric carmaker, Vinfast is now worth USD85 billion which is almost as much as Ford and General Motors combined
A relatively ‘young’ Vietnamese electric car manufacturer is now worth almost as much as automotive giants Ford and General Motors combined after its shares soared in their market debut on Tuesday this week.
VinFast jumped 255 percent to close at USD37.06 on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, leaving the company worth USD85 billion which happens to be far more than Ford (USD48 billion), General Motors (USD45 billion), or even Chrysler Stellantis (USD31 billion).
VinFast founder and chairman Pham Nhat Vuong is the richest person in Vietnam and owns about 99 percent of the company.
Meanwhile, according to Vingroup, VinFast received a USD2.5 billion boost in April this year from Vingroup and Vingroup’s chairman, Pham Nhat Vuong, to fund its global expansion.
With a strong commitment to be positioned in America and Europe, Vinfast wants to be a rival to Tesla and BYD.
Interestingly, VinFast is building a factory in North Carolina, USA to compete with the two biggest electric car market leaders, Tesla and BYD in the USA market, as well as traditional automakers increasingly focusing on hybrids and EVs.
The automaker said that the facility can produce up to 150,000 vehicles a year in the first phase.
The factory is expected to start operations in 2025 which is a year later than its initial target of 2024.
In case you were wondering. Back in 2017, Vingroup decided to enter the automotive market and launched the VinFast brand with a firm intent to become a global player.
When Vingroup decided to establish VinFast, it provided massive financial support to its subsidiary, and in just 18 months, the company set up a state-of-the-art car manufacturing facility in Haiphong, an hour away from Hanoi.
By 2022, the company had decided to stop manufacturing combustion engine cars, focusing entirely on electric vehicles, including cars, buses, scooters, and soon-to-come bikes.
Ms. Bùi Kim Thùy, is the Vingroup Global Director of Strategic Partnerships and VinFast Deputy CEO.
According to Ms. Bùi, the company always intended to manufacture EVs and designed its factory accordingly. Another reason for the shift, she said, is that EVs are “an irreversible trend in the world, with increasing efforts worldwide to switch to cleaner transportation means for a greener planet, as customers are increasingly interested in EV products.”
She also underlined the solid short-term development prospect of VinFast’s EVs, going beyond just a means of transportation to a step into the future with high-quality technology inside the car.
