VinFast is getting a huge cash infusion from an investment group led by Emirates Driving Co., a UAE-based driver education company, to the tune of at least $1 billion. The company is also set to provide VinFast with its expertise in driver training, road safety and the development of an electric vehicle ecosystem, whatever that means.
It’s a much-needed life raft for the Vietnamese car company. Shares dropped about 53 percent this year, and it posted a net loss of 18.76 trillion dong ($741 million) in the second quarter, according to Bloomberg. A year earlier, that loss was a slightly more palatable 13.4 trillion dong.
Despite the massive losses, VinFast’s billionaire founder and CEO Pham Nhat Vuong told Bloomberg in June that he would bet all of his money on the company’s growth. Perhaps with this cash boost that can actually happen.
There are big plans on the horizon for VinFast, too. It’s expected to open a factory in India in the first half of 2025, and back in July, it broke ground on an assembly plant in Indonesia. VinFast’s plans aren’t going as well in the U.S. Through the first two quarters of this year, VinFast moved just 21,747 vehicles. I’m honestly kind of surprised it was that many, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, it also delayed the opening of a North Carolina factory by three years to 2028. I still think that’s sort of optimistic.
Oddly, this isn’t the only Emirati car news to happen this week. On October 30, we reported that McLaren Automotive was purchased by Abu Dhabi-based investment firm CYVN Holdings. Folks out there certainly know how to make money, so I doubt all of this money would be poured into struggling automakers if they didn’t think they could be turned around.