VinFast, the Vietnamese electric car maker that wants a piece of the US EV market pie, will cut around 80 jobs in North America, including its chief financial officer in the United States, according to a story published by Automotive News.
The source says that the restructuring affects the Vietnamese company’s offices in Canada and the US, with Rodney Haynes, VinFast’s CFO in the United States, leaving his position.
VinFast previously announced that its operations in North America will be combined under a single entity headquartered in Los Angeles and that the first deliveries of its VF 8 all-electric SUV have been delayed to the second half of February because the software had to be updated. In other words, the carmaker, which is part of Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate and backed by the country’s richest person, is yet to get its models into the hands of American and Canadian customers.
Gallery: VinFast VF 8 and VF 9 electric SUVs
The company said in a comment for Bloomberg News that the restructuring was necessary to provide better service to customers in the region. “This also leads to the streamlining of our North American operations and there are certain departments affected by this,” the EV maker said.
VinFast launched two all-electric vehicles on the North American market, the VF 8 five-seater crossover and the VF 9 three-row SUV, with the VF 8 the first in line to be delivered to customers. Both models offer all-wheel drive and a ten-year warranty that includes the battery, with prices starting at $59,000 for the VF 8 and $83,000 for the VF 9 respectively.
The Vietnamese EV maker was founded in 2017 and wants to expand further onto the American market, with two smaller models – the VF 6 and VF 7 – prepped for launch in the United States in March 2023.
The automaker is also waiting for regulatory approval on its proposed $4-billion battery and EV factory in North Carolina, which – if built – will qualify its models for the federal tax credits currently offered for US-made electric vehicles.
