VinFast Auto Ltd’s new electric-vehicle (EV) manufacturing plant in Vietnam’s central province of Ha Ting will start operating by July next year, according to an emailed statement. 

The struggling EV maker said the facility will focus on producing VF 3 and VF 5 models, with an initial production capacity of 300,000 cars per year. The firm eventually plans to double that target, according to the statement. 

The factory, which will be constructed on an area of more than 36 hectares, is the company’s fifth automobile assembly facility, and will make EVs for both domestic and international markets.

VinFast has been bleeding cash since it shipped its first vehicles to the US in late 2022. The firm is facing headwinds as it attempts to become a global brand, amid fierce competition from established automakers and fast-growing Chinese companies producing cheap EVs.

VinFast’s first factory in the northern port city of Haiphong began producing vehicles in 2019. The company expects to open an India factory in the first half of next year, and broke ground on an assembly plant in Indonesia in July. It delayed the opening of a factory in North Carolina by three years to 2028. 

The company began delivering its low-cost mini-SUV VF 3 model domestically during the summer. It started taking orders for the VF 3 in the Philippines in September, and recently began delivering VF 5 models to Indonesia. 

The project will be developed by Vinhomes Ha Tinh Industrial Park Investment JSC, a unit of VinFast’s parent company Vingroup. It will be operated by VinFast under a long-term lease agreement.

  - Bloomberg