VinFast delays Europe launch on chip shortage

Vietnamese automaker VinFast has been forced to delay the European launch of the VF 8 and VF 9 electric SUVs to early 2023 from the second half of 2022 because of the global shortage of semiconductors.

"The global chipset supply chain disruption has affected VinFast and our production and delivery schedule in Europe," the automaker told Automotive News Europe in an emailed reply to questions, adding that it is working with its suppliers to start exports to Europe and Canada "in the coming months."

The delay for Europe, where the brand will start first in Germany, France and the Netherlands, comes as VinFast's first shipment of 999 VF 8 midsize SUVs departed Vietnam for the United States last week.

The VF 8s will be transported to California and then delivered to customers in late December, according to a VinFast statement.

The company t is weighing a U.S. initial public offering as soon as January 2023, Bloomberg reported.
 
At this year's Paris auto show, VinFast showed four full-electric cars, the VF 6 small crossover, VF 7 compact crossover, the VF 8 midsize SUV and the VF 9 large SUV.

VinFast executive Jean-Christophe Mercier told Automotive News Europe at the show that the automaker would start deliveries of the VF 9 in early 2023 and also start taking orders for the VF 7 and VF 6 next year.

Mercier, who is VinFast Europe's vice president of aftersales and customer ownership experience, declined to give a more exact time line for when reservations would start. It's also unclear whether the shipping delay has affected VinFast's plans to open a slew of stores in Europe.

VinFast said it opened its first flagship stores in Cologne, Germany, and Paris, the company's first in France, this month.

Those stores are to be followed by locations in Amsterdam, the brand's primary Dutch location; as well as Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Hamburg. The company also said last month that by early 2023 it would open stores in Oberhausen, Germany; Marseille, Rennes, Montpellier and Metz in France; and Den Haag and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Executive movements

Separately, VinFast confirmed the departure of two high-level executives in Europe.

Thomas Chretien, vice president of marketing for the European market, left in October and Emmanuel Bret, vice president for Europe, left in June 2022.

Chretien, who previously worked for Nissan, and Bret, a former BMW executive who is now with Fisker, according to his LinkedIn account, both left because of personal reasons, the company told ANE. In addition, Nikola CEO Michael Lohscheller joined the electric-truck maker after a short stint as CEO of VinFast Global. Lohscheller joined VinFast from Opel.

When asked about the frequent departures, David Lyon, who has been the automaker's head of design since 2017, said the speed at which the company works isn't for everybody.

"If you if you're the kind of person that is absolutely by the book, you're going to struggle," he told ANE at the Paris show.

To put cars in the road within five years of being founded, he said VinFast has had to skip some of the traditional -- arguably unnecessary -- steps that long-established automakers follow.

"Any big company that's been around for a long time has the illusion that slowing things down eliminates risk," said the executive, who spent nearly 14 years at General Motors before joining VinFast.

He added that VinFast is better suited to executives who are "confident in making decisions."

New arrival

The departure of Chretien comes as VinFast added another former member of Nissan Europe's team.

Gareth Dunsmore started with the company in October as advisor to chairman in customer experience. He was named deputy CEO for global sales and marketing this month, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Dunsmore joined the company from UK sports car maker McLaren, where he was chief marketing officer for nearly two years. Prior to that he spent more than 12 years at Nissan Europe, where he was named an Automotive News Europe Rising Star in 2018 for his work managing customer expectations around electric vehicles. Nissan was a pioneer in the sector when it debuted the Leaf.

Dunsmore will be responsible for the sales and revenue performance of VinFast EVs in Vietnam and abroad through both direct and online channels, the company said. He will also look for more opportunities to expand VinFast's business to other markets in the future. He is currently working for VinFast from Vietnam, the company said.

Nathan Eddy contributed to this report