Op-Ed: “Wild East” Gamble: Why VinFast is Burning Money to Attain the Stars

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CleanTechnica is all for renewables and electrification.

We exist to remind people of the Earth and to rid it of smoke belchers, offensive power technology, and local weather deniers. Idealistic as we’re, we’re additionally grounded within the fact that this can by no means occur rapidly sufficient, and can occur principally out of necessity.

And in case you learn the tales right here, we query, oftentimes lambast, generally expose, however principally reward and provides credit score the place credit score is due. I simply need to say this to set the tone for this piece.

After I obtained the most recent unaudited studies from VinFast final September, I requested them if I might get an audited report earlier than I began writing my opinion on VinFast and the place it’s going—no less than out there the place it meant to develop the quickest and the most important—proper right here within the USA. Elsewhere on the planet, they’re seeping (that’s the phrase) into the market. Deliberately sluggish, I suppose. However by no means overly cautious.

The studies by no means arrived, however that received’t cease a narrative. And it appears nothing will cease VinFast’s push into the US, a push lately highlighted by its aggressive presence at main occasions just like the Electrify Expo, an important step in re-establishing the model after some missteps, which incorporates unhealthy press on the VF8.

Now, I discovered two causes to put in writing this piece: 1) the residual worth program the corporate is operating within the Philippines and Indonesia; 2) and much more profoundly, house exploration.

Sure, VinGroup is now trying on the heavens for growth, investing in a brand new firm referred to as VinSpace Joint Inventory Firm. Based on Reuterswho broke the story, the brand new VND300 billion ($11,840,000) enterprise can be concerned in space-related actions, particularly telecommunication satellite tv for pc operations and scientific analysis.

Doesn’t that sound like burning money?

Just lately, CleanTechnica revisited their plant in Vietnam for the third time and in contrast notes between 2022 and 2025. There may be nice progress in manufacturing, analysis, and growth again in Vietnam. This wasn’t simply progress; it was transformative, on the very least.

Not monetary recommendation

I’m not a finance man, so this story was developed with a variety of assist from an auditor pal (whose identify I can’t point out) to make me perceive what the rows and columns of numbers suggest. The numbers themselves had been staggering, however two distinct impressions got here to thoughts to me as a non-finance man.

First, my thought is: this firm is loopy. This degree of economic danger is matched solely by their historical past of audacity. I’ve coated the model since 2017 after they held a contest to current to the Vietnamese individuals designs for the brand new nationwide automotive, which was later to grow to be the Lux A2.0 and Lux SA 2.0.

Think about that. As an alternative of simply getting a couple of heads collectively within the design section, they elicited the assistance of the entire nation, with 60,000 residents casting votes.

I noticed that over time, the corporate was shedding cash at such a wide ranging tempo that some other automotive firm would have executives exiting or scrambling for options. VinFast executives appear to be sleeping simply tremendous.

I requested a finance professional pal and journalist to inform me what the Vietnamese automaker’s newest unaudited monetary report means. He mentioned if we have a look at it traditionally, it’s merely good investing. He identified how Tesla suffered losses too, each capital and operational. He framed the studies as a masterclass in strategic spending: take monumental losses now to dominate the worldwide EV market later.

Wild, Wild East

The present numbers inform a wild story. (Notice: not audited, not up to date since September 10, 2025.)

VinFast delivered 72,167 EVs within the first half of 2025—a staggering 223% bounce from the identical interval final yr. Add of their e-scooters and e-bikes, and so they’re transferring severe quantity: 114,484 two-wheelers delivered, up 447% year-over-year. Income hit $663 million within the second quarter alone, practically doubling from final yr. With 394 showrooms now unfold throughout the globe, it’s the sort of operational breakthrough that ought to have traders celebrating.

The latest press launch mentioned “VinFast continues to interrupt data within the home automotive market by efficiently delivering 20,380 electrical automobiles of varied fashions in October 2025, bringing the entire variety of VinFast autos delivered nationwide to 124,264 models within the first 10 months of the yr.”

These figures are actual.

Crucially, a lot of these automobiles are “gross sales” to a associated entity: the GSM taxi service—an enormously profitable endeavor within the international locations it has situated in. Whereas the cash strikes from one company pocket to a different, it represents vital quantity and real-world testing that reinforces the supply figures.

As an alternative, the underside line seems like a monetary catastrophe zone. However it that true?

All the pieces or nothing

However right here’s the factor—that is pure Pham Nhat Vuong.

The billionaire chairman has made it crystal clear he’s keen to lose no matter it takes to make VinFast succeed. You don’t hear that from the overly cautious American automotive govt terrified of the inventory backlash of such an announcement.

Mom firm VinGroup decides quick. And good son VinFast carries out the orders rapidly. I used to be sitting of their Hanoi places of work in 2022 when the memo went out: no extra inner combustion engines. Interval. Whereas Tesla was the one main new-world automaker courageous sufficient—or insane sufficient (like Nissan)—to guess every little thing on electrical, right here was a Vietnamese startup that had barely found out typical automobiles making the identical all-or-nothing wager.

With Vuong on document saying he’ll burn via more cash if crucial, these staggering quarterly losses begin trying much less like monetary mismanagement and extra like a deliberate warfare chest being deployed. Each greenback of loss is deliberate, a part of a $2 billion gamble that the majority People will finally purchase automobiles from a model they will’t pronounce. The corporate is torching money on three huge fronts: constructing a community of shiny showrooms from California to Germany, launching advertising blitzes to persuade skeptical patrons that “Vietnamese luxurious EV” isn’t an oxymoron, and funding R&D labs working across the clock on next-generation autos.

“Reside lengthy and prosper”

The intentions behind VinSpace are in all probability the “highest” potential type of ambition. With Mr. Spock’s Vulcan salute, “stay lengthy and prosper.”

Down on Earth, its sprawling Hai Phong facility continues to churn out automobiles, whereas its American manufacturing intentions rising on a North Carolina farmland are quickly on maintain. This facility isn’t only a manufacturing facility—it’s VinFast’s complete American dream materialized in metal and concrete. If it really works, the corporate dodges crushing import tariffs and slashes transport prices whereas planting a flag on the planet’s best automotive market.

It’s right here that the delays—seen as a kind of much-lambasted missteps—took on a cosmic, nearly divine that means.

When Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina in late 2024, the state’s infrastructure and building surroundings floor to a halt. The VinFast web site, although bodily shielded from the worst of the floods, was months away from vital vertical building. Some inner observers will need to have quietly thought-about the delay an surprising type of “divine windfall,” sparing a multi-billion-dollar construct from potential catastrophic disruption. If it doesn’t work, properly, that’s a large failure.

The brutal math is straightforward: VinFast is paying the astronomical (no pun meant) worth of admission to play with Tesla, GM, and Ford. The corporate’s guess is that in the present day’s monetary massacre will seem like pocket change as soon as they’re manufacturing a whole lot of 1000’s of EVs yearly — whether or not that’s in Vietnam, Indonesia, India, or on good ol’ American soil.