VinFast, the automaker arm of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup, delivered 3,042 electric vehicles to the market in July, the firm said Thursday.
VF e34, a sports utility vehicle (SUV) crossover, accounted for the biggest portion with 1,181 units; followed by VF 5 Plus, a SUV, with 1,000; and the VF 8 and VF 9 SUVs with 443 and 418 units, respectively.
VinFast’s January-July sales of 14,680 units included 6,253 VF e34; 4,998 VF 8; 1,977 VF 5 Plus; and 1,452 VF 9.
VF 9 and VF 5 Plus are new products introduced to the market in March and April, respectively.
VF 8 is also well-known as the vehicle used for luxury services by GSM (Green-Smart-Mobility) JSC, Vingroup’s electric car and motorbike rental and taxi service arm. The company uses the VF e34 and VF 5 models for its non-luxury services.
VinFast's ordinary shares and warrants are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq as the “VFS” and “VFSWW” tickers, respectively, on or around August 15.
The impending listing follows a Thursday announcement by VinFast and Black Spade Acquisition Co that their previously announced business combination had been approved at an extraordinary general meeting of Black Spade’s shareholders.
Vietnam’s electric vehicle (EV) market can see an annual sales growth of almost 26% to reach around 64,500 units in 2032, according to BMI, a Fitch Solutions company. Initially, the market would be impacted by low incomes and lackluster incentives, but it will grow strongly thereafter with local production of domestic and foreign brands like VinFast, Wuling HongGuang, Skoda and Hyundai, a BMI report says. Other factors backing the EV market growth include development of the energy market, it adds.
The BMI report forecasts EV sales in Vietnam to double year-on-year to 17,964 units in 2023 - 16,886 battery electric vehicles (BEV) and 1,078 plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV). It attributes the strong growth in BEV to VinFast.
In 2022, VinFast dominated the Vietnamese market with over 50% of the market share, beginning delivery of its VF5 Plus model. Then, in March 2022, Vingroup established GSM (Green-Smart-Mobility) JSC to offer electric car and motorbike rental and taxi services.