Vietnam’s EV maker VinFast is on monitor to start out manufacturing within the U.S. in 2024

Vietnamese electrical automobile maker VinFast informed CNBC it is on monitor to start out manufacturing within the U.S. by 2024 although the corporate is reducing its headcount in North America.

Vietnam’s first home automaker previously announced plans to go public in the U.S.

Simply this week, VinFast — the automotive arm of Vietnam’s largest conglomerate Vingroup — announced it will be cutting jobs in the U.S. in a restructuring train that can consolidate its operations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

“After final yr’s commentary, we see numerous similarity within the two markets and consolidating the 2 markets will enable us to be stronger and extra agile,” mentioned Le Thi Thu Thuy, VinFast CEO, in an interview with CNBC’s J.P. Ong on Friday.

The information in regards to the job cuts come on the heels of a Reuters report on Feb. 3 that VinFast will be delaying deliveries to its first customers in the U.S.

VinFast shipped its first batch of cars to the U.S. in November, which included 999 VF 8s. It had plans to ship them by the top of December however has since delayed shipments to February.

Le informed CNBC on Friday they’ve about 12,000 pre-orders within the U.S.

The automaker has been ramping up its U.S. growth to tackle American automakers akin to Tesla and introduced it will be setting up a production plant in North Carolina to fabricate EVs.

Le mentioned the layoffs is not going to have an effect on the deliberate timeline for manufacturing to start at its first North American manufacturing plant.

“We’re within the remaining levels of getting a allow to check the development however the land has already been cleared. The state has already labored on the infrastructure for the land as properly,” she informed CNBC.

“We nonetheless plan to start out the trial manufacturing in 2024 as initially deliberate,” Le mentioned. The annual manufacturing capability of the plant is 150,000 electrical autos, in line with the corporate’s launch.

The following markets VinFast plans to focus on will likely be in Europe, particularly Germany, France and the Netherlands, mentioned the CEO.

Nevertheless, VinFast autos don’t at the moment qualify for the $7,500 tax credit score within the U.S. as a result of they aren’t constructed within the nation, however are in-built Vietnam. Costs for the 2023 VinFast VF 8 mannequin start from $40,700.

“We instantly accelerated our plan for the North Carolina plant. Fortunately, we had already signed that settlement earlier than the Inflation Discount Act,” Le mentioned.

“We did not see it coming however we at all times [planned] to have a plant within the U.S. so the IRA elevated our manufacturing functionality within the U.S. to make it possible for our prospects will have the ability to have entry to electrical autos at an inexpensive pricing.”

“I imagine that in the long term [we are] going to pay attention the manufacturing of electrical autos in addition to the important thing elements of electrical autos within the U.S.,” Le added.

VinFast filed for an initial public offering in the U.S. on Dec. 6. They haven’t disclosed the quantity nor worth of the shares to be traded, according to its prospectus. It is usually not identified after they precisely plan to record.

“Now we have been watching the depth of the market and I feel this yr, the market has been slightly bit higher. We’re prepared however we’d like the market to be extra cooperative for us to make the IPO occur,” mentioned Le.

When requested about when the IPO is predicted to occur, she mentioned: “After we are prepared to speak extra about it, we will likely be glad to share extra.”