VinFast North American job cuts total about 80; Canadian CEO resigns

Electric-vehicle maker VinFast has cut about 80 jobs in North America, including its U.S. chief financial officer, raising questions about the health of the Vietnamese company ahead of a possible stock listing.

Rodney Haynes, CFO of VinFast US, has left amid a restructuring of the business, according to people familiar with the situation. There were also layoffs in Canada, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter wasn’t public.

While VinFast has yet to confirm the total number of affected employees in Canada, a source told Automotive News Canada that about 30 of about 100 employees in Canada were let go Feb. 2. 

Canadian spokesman John Lindo said Feb. 7 that VinFast Canada CEO Huynh Du An has resigned while Gene Fong continues as director of marketing.

VinFast, part of Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate and backed by the country’s richest person, said late last month it was consolidating its U.S. and Canadian strategic business and management operations into a single unit called VinFast North America, headquartered in Los Angeles. Van Anh Nguyen was named CEO of the new entity, while maintaining her role as CEO of VinFast U.S. Manufacturing, the company said.

VinFast US CEO Giang Nguyen has been reassigned to be deputy CEO of VinFast North America, according to the people.

In response to questions from Bloomberg News, Vinfast said the restructuring was aimed at better serving customers in the region, and that it has been working with local service providers to improve efficiency. “This also leads to the streamlining of our North American operations and there are certain departments affected by this,” the EV maker said in an email.

Haynes and Nguyen didn’t immediately respond to messages from Bloomberg.

The company is waiting for regulatory approval to begin construction of a $4-billion vehicle assembly plant in North Carolina. The company had initially targeted a start of production there next year.

It said in December it had filed for an initial public offering to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "VFS" to fund its expansion.

VinFast is looking to compete with established carmakers at a time when major automakers are driving prices down and looking to take advantage of new tax credits for qualifying models in the U.S.

VinFast vehicles are not eligible for the $7,500 tax credit in the United States because they are not built in North America.