Vietnam’s VinFast Car Maker Overtakes GM, Ford After IPO

Vietnamese car manufacturer VinFast overtaken long-established American car brands in terms of market value.

Following its IPO on Nasdaq on Tuesday, its shares surged 270 percent ahead of the $10 IPO price,closing at $37.06 on Tuesday.

Following the market debut, VinFast is now currently worth $85 billion, according to CNBC calculations.

Market value

This is almost double the market value of established brand names such as Ford ($48bn) and General Motors ($46bn), and is also ahead of Volkswagen ($63bn) and BMW ($66bn).

However Toyota ($224bn) is worth more, and so is the most valuable car maker Tesla ($738bn).

Shares of VinFast were down 10 percent ahead of the open Wednesday.

This is remarkable considering VinFast was only founded in 2017 and announced its first petrol-powered Lux automobiles the following year.

VinFast, a unit of Vietnam’s biggest industrial conglomerate Vingroup, currently employs about 6,000 people.

Last week it said it is planning to hire 8,000 new staff, more than doubling its current headcount, for its electric vehicle plant in Vietnam as it prepares to deliver its first electric cars to the US by the end of this year.

Rapid expansion

VinFast produces an electric scooter, the Klara, for the Vietnamese market and in the US is showcasing its VF8 and VF9 SUVs.

The plant in Haiphong has production capacity for 250,000 cars per year and VinFast has said it wants to raise that to 600,000 by 2026.

In March it said it would establish a North Carolina factory with an initial planned capacity of 150,000 EVs per year, employing 7,500 people.

VinFast has said it expects to sell 750,000 EVs per year by 2026 starting with the VF8 and VF9, which are intended for North America and Europe.