VinFast, a Vietnamese car maker, has postponed the start of production at its yet-to-be-built plant in North Carolina to 2025. The company had previously planned to start trial production by 2024, but said that it now needs more time to complete administrative procedures. According to a filing for its planned US initial public offering, pre-construction work for phase one of the facility commenced in Q3 2022, with commissioning targeted for 2025. Phase one is expected to have an initial capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year, rising to 250,000 upon completion of phase two. The delay means that VinFast will not be able to take advantage of tax credits provided under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which are only eligible for electric vehicles made in the US.
The company, which is part of Vingroup JSC and owned by billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, has incurred losses of $2.1bn in the 12 months to 31 December 2021. Revenue from vehicle sales was just $525m in 2021, down from $586m the previous year. The cars that were shipped over from Vietnam started to be delivered to US customers this month. The VF 8 City Edition electric SUVs were delivered to 45 buyers, and VinFast said that the vehicles will continue to be delivered to customers through its stores or a home delivery service. VinFast has around 12,000 pre-orders for the VF 8 and VF 9 models.
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