Why Fisker Stock Popped, but Canoo and VinFast Dropped Today The Motley Fool
Its share price soared more than 250% on the first day of trading, but has since dropped more than 60%. Shares of Vingroup, one of the largest conglomerates in Vietnam, closed at 45,200 Vietnamese dong ($1.85) on Wednesday, its lowest level since November 2017, according to Refinitiv data. VinFast said it expects to deliver 40,000 to 50,000 vehicles in 2023 despite a weak global economy. That’s almost seven times the 7,400 EVs it sold last year, all in Vietnam. Low-float stocks like VinFast are susceptible to high volatility and jaw-dropping moves, both to the upside and the downside.
Analysts also noted that VinFast’s models are not competitively priced. For example, VinFast’s VF9 model is priced from $83,000 whereas the Tesla Model X is priced from $68,590 after federal tax credit microsoft azure certifications and gas savings. However, its U.S. expansion has faced hurdles including delayed deliveries of the VF8 to its first customers and the opening of its North Carolina plant postponed until 2025.
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Sept 21 (Reuters) – Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker VinFast said on Thursday its revenue more than doubled in the second quarter on higher deliveries to domestic customers, in its first results since its market debut last month. A new electric vehicle company is making waves on Wall Street, but not because of the cars it’s selling. In July, market facilitation index VinFast broke ground in North Carolina at what will be its first EV factory outside of Vietnam. The company expects to start production in the U.S. by 2025 with an estimated annual production capacity of 150,000 units. Founded in 1993, The Motley Fool is a financial services company dedicated to making the world smarter, happier, and richer.
We drove the $54,200 Plus City Edition, a trim specific to the first 999 units to arrive to the U.S. and is the same as the Plus but only available via lease in California starting at $528 a month for three years and after a $5090 down payment. To make things confusing, the initial run of City Editions are equipped with a Samsung-sourced 82.0-kWh battery that the EPA says should provide 207 miles of range for the forex vs crypto Eco and 191 miles for the Plus. After the City Editions are out the door, VinFast will make the switch to a 87.7-kWh CATL pack that will up the range to an EPA-estimated 264 miles for the Eco and 243 for the Plus, but those numbers may understate the actual range. The Ford Bronco–sized VF8 is the smaller of the two VinFast models that will come to the US and is farther along in development than the three-row VF9.
However, VinFast does not appear to be selling many vehicles so far. The company recently revealed that 7,100 of its 11,300 global sales in the first half of 2023 were to Green and Smart Mobility, a Vietnamese taxi firm controlled by Vingroup. According to an SEC filing, his Vingroup controls 1.2 billion shares in VinFast, more than 50 percent of outstanding shares. Two of his private investment companies, Vietnamese Investment Group and Asian Star, own an additional 1.1 billion shares.
- So it’s highly likely it’ll take more debt or issue shares in the near future to fund growth, especially as it builds its EV factory in North Carolina.
- The stock did experience a boost last Thursday following a report suggesting the company is planning to set up a manufacturing plant in India.
- VinFast, which began making EVs in 2021, expects to sell up to 50,000 units this year.
- VinFast has been ramping up its expansion outside of Vietnam this year, in a bid to compete with automakers globally.
- Long story short, both these companies are strapped for cash and paying through the nose to get access to more money.
Nestle purchased the brand, and Pham moved back to his homeland, where he began a chain of resorts and became Vietnam’s first billionaire. Personal success might be enough for some, but he wants to make Vietnam a player on the world stage. We get a whirlwind tour, and a tiny test drive, of the Vietnamese startup automaker’s first global EV offering. But as of last month only 350 cars—all of them VF8s—were currently on the road. That essentially means there aren’t enough investors to determine a fair market value of the company.
The “FAST” in the VinFast name is an acronym in Vietnamese, representing the stated goals of the company, but it’s not lost on us, or the company’s founders, that in English, it means something done quickly. The new automotive brand was announced in the fall of 2017, and barely a year later VinFast had three gasoline-powered cars available in Vietnam, and an electric scooter factory. By the summer of 2019 the company had completed an 827-acre automotive facility in Hai Phong and was delivering its first cars.
Who owns VinFast?
Several EV makers – including Lordstown Motors and Faraday Future – have gone public using Spacs in the last three years. Spacs are often used by start-ups to speed up the often slow and expensive process of taking a private company public. In simple terms, it means merging a company that is not on a stock exchange with one that is.
Additionally, Tesla passenger vehicles qualify for a $7,500 federal tax credit in the U.S., while VinFast vehicles are currently not eligible as they are not built in the U.S. VinFast said its U.S. sales are improving, adding that “with the upcoming addition of dealers, we will likely exceed our plan for the year.” VinFast has been ramping up its expansion outside of Vietnam this year, in a bid to compete with automakers globally. “We are going to Indonesia with our battery company to get advantage of the battery ecosystem there,” Thuy said on the call, adding the Indonesian government was open and offered tax benefits. To accelerate sales, Thuy said VinFast was in talks with several dealers in the U.S. and would announce the dealership soon.
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As its ICE cars were gaining traction in its home market, VinFast founder Pham Nhat Vuong announced in 2021 that the company would pivot to EVs. By the end of the year, it was selling electric scooters, electric buses, and the VF e34, a small electric SUV about the size of a Toyota C-HR, with promises of two larger models to come, the VF8 and the VF9. The mid-size five-seat VF8 and seven-seat VF9 will not only come to the U.S. market but will be built here, in a new 2000-acre factory in North Carolina. The goal, said Vuong, is to make VinFast a recognizable name worldwide and, you guessed it, to do it fast.
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VinFast told CNBC that “experts have carefully researched and priced our vehicles properly.” It also said it does not consider some of these mentioned vehicles as their competitors, without specifying models. “[This suggests] that it may not as easy as said to increase the sales volume in the U.S. and other foreign markets given more established EV models are selling for a lower price,” said Samsudeen. Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast’s ambitious plan to deliver as many as 50,000 vehicles this year is “unrealistic,” according to one analyst. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world’s media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.
By comparison, Tesla delivered 1.3 million cars in 2022 and Toyota sold 10.5 million. In May, VinFast recalled all of the cars it had shipped to the U.S. over a screen failure that saw the display go blank. The carmaker broke ground on its first American factory in North Carolina last month with plans to begin production at the $4 billion facility in 2025—as of June, only 137 electric vehicles by VinFast were registered on U.S. roads. When the newly-merged SPAC shares began trading, Forbes initially discounted the value of Pham’s shares by 30% to account for the low float.
But it’s not the company’s lineup of cars or strong sales that’s driving this stock. VinFast expects to sell just 50,000 vehicles this year, and the early reviews of the cars have not been favorable. VinFast went public through a reverse merger with Black Spade Acquisition Co., a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) based in Hong Kong. SPAC mergers, also known as “blank check” mergers, were a popular way for startups to go public during the pandemic. But as the financial market declined in 2022, dealmaking slowed significantly.
“It’s normal for the share price to be very volatile at the beginning of the listing, especially with such a very small free float,” she told AFP in an interview at the company’s offices in Hanoi. Long story short, both these companies are strapped for cash and paying through the nose to get access to more money. VinFast is in similar straits, with less than 18 months’ worth of cash on hand at its present burn rate. All three of these EV stocks, therefore, look like they’re in serious trouble right now.
Motortrend called the VF8 “nowhere near ready for public consumption.” Inside EVs described riding in the VF8 as “unbearable.” These are not exactly promising signs. Thanks to a wildly fluctuating stock price, you may have seen the name VinFast in the news lately. In case you wondered just what it is — and whether Dom Toretto is involved — here’s everything you need to know. According to VinFast figures, around 17,000 orders for two models—the VF8 and the VF9—have been placed by customers worldwide, including around 10,000 in the United States. Only around one percent of VinFast shares are listed for trading, with 99 percent held by Pham Nhat Vuong, the owner of parent group Vingroup and Vietnam’s richest man.
The model received negative reviews in the U.S. over its quality and the company voluntarily recalled the first batch of 999 cars to fix a software glitch. They have lost about 54% of their value since the start of trading on Aug. 15 following the merger with a blank-check company. One of the biggest reasons why VinFast stock surged in the past few days was a crucial update about the range ratings for its new all-electric, full-size SUV, VF 9.