VIETNAMESE electric vehicle car maker, MArkMArke has seen its shares rise in the Nasdaq  following the automaker’s announcement that it has officially signed agreements with 12 more new car dealers across the United States.

The move comes on top of a promise by a leading Vietnamese backer of VinFast that he would add $1 billion ($A1.53 billion) “from his own pocket” to the $11 billion ($A16.8 billion) he has already invested in the company.

The move to sales through dealerships comes after disappointing results from its direct-to-consumer sales models which operated from 15 company stores and service centres based in California.  

The company said the strategy to use dealers was designed to shorten the time it takes to deliver cars to market. 

It said the new policy, which it described as a “capital-light hybrid model,” would avoid the capital costs that burdened the setting up of its company-owned stores and would reduce the funding costs that hit direct-to-market OEMs holding their own cars in stock as they wait for buyers to appear.

VinFast appointed its first dealership in North Carolina last year and in February announced another four Vinfast dealerships in Kansas, Texas and New York. The new appointments means VinFast has now added dealerships across seven states adding North Carolina, Florida, Connecticut and Kentucky. 

The company plans to continue with a hybrid model of both direct and dealerships but added in a report to the Nasdaq that it might sell some of its company stores to dealership partners. 

VinFast says it aims to expand its dealership network under the capital-light hybrid strategy both within the US and internationally.

 David Duncan, vice president of sales and marketing at VinFast US said in a statement: “Leveraging the network of stores, market experience, and capabilities of leading US dealers, VinFast will quickly deliver high-quality, competitively-priced electric vehicles to consumers, along with outstanding after-sales policies.

“This establishes a solid foundation for VinFast’s strong growth in the US market,” he added.

Dealers will initially sell the VF 8 model with sales of the VF 9 and VF 7 models coming later.

Billion dollar injection 

Meanwhile Reuters is reporting that Vietnamese billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong said he plans to support Nasdaq-listed electric vehicle maker with an additional $1 billion ($1.53 billion) from his own personal fortune.

He told an investor call that while VinFast was still losing money he would add to the investment he and Vingroup had poured into the company; some $11.4 billion ($A16.8 billion) as of the end of last year.

Mr Vuong is the chief executive officer of VinFast.

VinFast reported a loss in the fourth quarter of 2023 just north of $650 million. It believes it can reduce losses as it expands sales into new markets. It is forecasting increased sales of 100,000 units this year. In 2023 it made 35,000 units. 

VinFast is building a factory in North Carolina with a capacity for 150,000 vehicles a year. It is expected to come on stream mid-this year. 

VinFast is headquartered in Hanoi and has built a facility in Haiphong, Vietnam, that it says will have the capacity to produce 950,000 vehicles per year by 2026.

VinFast has established global operations in the US, Canada, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

In 2021 it announced that it would make EVs only by 2023.