This manufacturer adopts a strange method to inflate its sales figures

The Vietnamese manufacturer VinFast is trying to make a breakthrough in Europe and the USA with its electric SUVs. To do this, the company pulled out all the stops with two fairly high-end products.

The problem, is that VinFast does not necessarily meet with the expected successnotably after initial unencouraging press tests, a non-existent brand image and products which, fundamentally, are quite expensive.

Thunderous debut… on the stock market

VinFast was founded in 2018 and is owned by the powerful private conglomerate Vingroup. VinFast’s meteoric rise in the stock market was one of the notable events in 2023 for the company.

In August, when it entered the stock market, the Vietnamese manufacturer quickly became the third largest manufacturer in the world in terms of capitalization, ranking behind the giants Toyota and Tesla. However, this surge proved short-lived, and VinFast stock has since fallen below its initial value, leaving investors perplexed.

Let’s say that the news surrounding the brand does not necessarily help to maintain a high price, since, according to an American media outlet, VinFast would have artificially inflated its sales. A Vingroup-owned taxi company reportedly purchased nearly 62% of VinFast vehicles sold globally in the first half of 2023.

This practice was detected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which also highlighted the almost total control of the company’s actions by Pham Nhat Vuong, the president of VinFast. Pham Nhat Vuong owns 51% of Vingroup, which has a majority stake in VinFast.

Additionally, he is the largest shareholder of Vietnam Investment Group, the consortium that jointly owns shares in VinFast with Vingroup. Ultimately, only a tiny fraction, or 0.3% of VinFast’s stock, appears to be truly available to investors.

Sales that are not taking off

The Vietnamese manufacturer also encountered difficulties related to the approval of its vehicles in Europe. However, a company executive recently claimed that these issues have now been resolved. VinFast recently launched the VF8, a 4.75 meter long electric SUV on the French market, with a starting price of around 50,000 euros.

The VF8 comes with an attractive 10-year or 200,000 kilometer warranty. Unfortunately, and as stated above, this vehicle has been the target of numerous criticisms from the specialized press in the United States, largely due to its poor performance in power consumption.

VinFast’s marketing teams, however, have no shortage of ideas to get people talking about the brand, since recently, and we reported it to you on Auto Plus, VinFast adopted a hitherto unpublished after-sales policy: the manufacturer offers to compensate its customers in the event of a problem with one of its vehicles. Not sure that this will help sales take off, especially since the distribution network is struggling to become more dense.

Read also :
• Trucks of the future: electric or with hydrogen?
• Tesla: the first copy of the Semi has been delivered
• Renault Trucks will launch new electric trucks