Vietnamese automaker Vinfast has improved its sales in the US after tweaking its VF8 model following feedback from customers.
The firm does not separate out its sales by region but said that US sales represented a "strong year" in its full year 2023 results.
Vinfast launched the VF8 in California last year and plans to bring its larger, three-row VF9 crossover to the US this year.
The strong sales year comes after Vinfast was forced to make changes to the VF8 to reduce noise and vibration during driving, following negative customer feedback.
“We initially received some critical but important product feedback [and] we listened to our US customers,” says Madame Thuy, CEO of Vinfast. “I am really proud of our team for rapidly implementing a number of important improvements and updates.”
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In the US VinFast now has 13 stores and service centres in California and six dealers in five states – New York, Texas, Kansas, Florida and North Carolina – with an additional 75 dealers under application.
“As we add more and more dealers, we expect that in the sales in the US in multiple markets would increase,” says Thuy.
VinFast is building a $4bn EV factory in North Carolina, which is slated for completion in 2025, with a capacity of 150,000 vehicles per year in its first phase.
The firm has 9000 orders on its books for which it has already received deposits, and which it now expects to service through the dealer network.
At the end of 2023, VinFast pivoted from a capital-heavy, direct-to-consumer distribution model to a capital-light hybrid model leveraging the existing dealership network in the US.
“This dealer model starting in the US has quickly proven itself with recent sales improving massively. We plan to do the same for Canada and many other markets,” says Thuy.
VinFast delivered a total of 34,855 electric vehicles in FY 2023, marking a 374pc increase compared to the previous year, and plans to deliver 100,000 vehicles in FY 2024.
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