Vietnamese EV worth more than Ford and GM

VinFast made an impressive entrance onto the Nasdaq this week with an $85 billion valuation

Shares of Vietnam-based electric vehicle (EV) maker VinFast soared more than 68% during the first day of trading on the Nasdaq on Tuesday. The company is now worth more than $85 billion, almost twice as much as Ford or General Motors.

According to Refinitiv data, Ford and GM are valued at $48 billion and $46 billion respectively. Tesla is still the world’s largest automaker by market capitalization, at $739 billion, and Chinese rival BYD is in fourth place with a $93 billion valuation.

VinFast went public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) after completing a merger with US-listed Black Spade Acquisition. Its shares closed at $37.06 on Tuesday – 270% higher than Black Spade Acquisition’s IPO price of $10 in 2021. By the close on Wednesday the shares were trading just above $30.

As the automaking unit of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, VinFast was founded in 2017. The company had opened 122 showrooms globally as of June, and is building a factory in North Carolina to compete with EV makers Tesla and BYD in the US market, as well as traditional carmakers focusing on hybrids and EVs. The new factory is expected to start operations in 2025, and according to VinFast, will produce up to 150,000 vehicles a year in the first phase.

Asked by CNBC about how VinFast plans to compete with the big players in a competitive market like the US, the company’s chief executive Le Thi Thu Thuy explained that “[With] the whole world and US in particular moving from internal combustion engines to EVs, there’s room for everybody.”

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