Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer VinFast reported on Monday a bigger fourth-quarter net loss, hit by rising costs as the company spent heavily to boost sales and expand its manufacturing footprint.
VinFast made a net loss of 35.2 trillion dong ($1.34 billion) in the final quarter of 2025, 15 per cent wider versus the previous quarter and 46.5 per cent wider than the same period of 2024.
A free-charging programme launched in December 2024 was among the key contributors to the increased costs but helped accelerate sales.
“The programme is highly appreciated by customers, even by dealers… it was one of the best ways for them to convince people to adopt EVs,” VinFast Chair Thuy Le told Reuters.
“It is expensive, but at the same time is a good investment. We have many other ways to attract customers.”
Full-year revenue rose 105 per cent to $3.6 billion. The company, a subsidiary of conglomerate Vingroup, has said it looked forward to breakeven by the end of this year.
“Despite backing from Vingroup, VinFast’s high cash burn rate raises questions regarding its ability to fund the required CAPEX,” Ollie Coughlin, an analyst at Third Bridge said in a note.
VinFast said it expected to resume construction of a US manufacturing plant in North Carolina this year, which it delayed in 2024 citing an uncertain EV market. It is expected to start operations in 2028.
The company delivered 86,557 EVs during the quarter, a 127 per cent increase from the third quarter and a 63 per cent rise from the same period last year. Two-wheeler shipments jumped over 450 per cent annually in the quarter to nearly 172,000, after Hanoi announced plans to ban petrol-powered motorbikes from its city centre starting in mid-2026.
VinFast aims to deliver at least 300,000 EVs globally in 2026 and plans to grow its two-wheeler business to 2.5 times 2025 volumes, targeting markets such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, where two-wheelers are widely used, Le said.
