Posted on 06/25/2024 9:30:57 AM PDT by Red Badger
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese automaker VinFast, for a short time the third-most valuable car company in the world, has a big problem: It just can’t sell enough cars.
Idle factories bleed money and the company’s financial health is at stake. After finding the U.S. market a tough nut to crack, Vinfast is hoping its tiniest and cheapest car yet — a roughly 10-foot-long pure battery electric mini-SUV priced at $9,200 and called the VF3 — will become Vietnam’s “national car” and win over consumers in Asian markets.
Designed specifically for the Vietnamese and other Asian markets, the VF3 is priced for “mass appeal”, according to VinFast. It expects bigger sales for it than from earlier models that were meant mainly for export to western countries, Le Thi Thuy, Vingroup’s chairperson, said in an earnings call in April.
VinFast was dreaming of breaking into the big leagues of global automakers when it launched sales in the U.S. last year and listed its shares on the Nasdaq, where its market value briefly surpassed those of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. in late August.
Investor enthusiasm has since cooled, and its shares are trading below $4 from a peak of $82.35. VinFast is facing delays in construction of a $4 billion factory in North Carolina, where the company said in an email that it is reviewing and evaluating “all aspects of the construction process.” It’s facing legal troubles over a crash that killed four people in California. It’s also dealing with allegations of patent infringement.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Who wants to buy cars from “Charlie”?
Reminds me of the Yugo back in the 70s. Probably higher quality if these glossy pictures tell the tale. Might be a good ‘putt-around-the-town’ vehicle at that price.
They are our ‘ally’ now.................
They were great at building tunnels..
Even into the 80s, a lot of WWII vets still refused to buy anything from Japan.
It’s nicer looking than the Yugo.
Yes, and that’s the way history goes. Russia and China were once our allies...................
There is a good-sized fortune to be made by the first company that recognizes that all vehicle use cases are not the same and not all require the ability to go hundreds of miles between charges. But no one is going to pay IC car prices for a vehicle with less capability. They’ll still need an IC car for longer distances but for $10K or less, millions of drivers will see an EV as a great addition to their fleet for trips to the store, commuting to/from work, taking kids to events, etc. Home every night for charging in the garage.
My Dad included. He participated in the Pacific Theatre.
Much nicer... looks solid. I went to test drive a Yugo when I was a teenager... was looking for a cheap first vehicle and our local Chrysler lot was selling them. I sat down in the driver seat and noticed the window roller and the door latch were made of plastic which was unusual in the 70s. I went to roll down the window and the handle literally broke off in my hand. I ended up buying a used 71 Opel sedan instead..
Exactly... that’s how I viewed this offering..
Just buy a golf cart.
Small and built specically for cities, not long distance, is how the whole EV madness should have started. More people would have been able to afford them and so more people would have bought them, and so the market share against ICE cars would have grown, and over time their would have a been a natural unforced evolution to bigger EVs that could go very very long distances on single charge.
The EV industry error was in trying to go after the best ICE vehicles immediately.
Yes. They tried to force the public into EVs and got burned..........
“Russia and China were once our allies...................”
Russia: The enemy of my enemy
China: Now Taiwan
I'm sure there's a great EV recharge infrastructure there in the jungle among the thatched huts...
ps.. that Yugo test drive was actually 1984... so I wasn’t still a teenager...
Wouldn’t it be cool to ride around on a roman candle, until the fuse got lit!
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