Le Thi Thu Thuy
Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead. Your line is now open
Thank you, Nhi, and welcome everyone to VinFast's second quarter 2024 earnings call. It has been a while since we last spoke with you and I'm happy to be here again and share exciting updates about VinFast's latest activities and business results. I would like first to remind you that we are fully committed to our mission to contribute to a sustainable future for everyone. As a result, our strategy remains steadfast in being a vertically integrated green mobility solutions company providing high quality and good value electric vehicles. We recognize that certain markets are currently facing headwinds that pose challenges to the EV outlook. As a result, we took a prudent review of our business plan earlier in the year. However, thanks to our diversified EV product portfolio and access to multiple markets. We have developed execution plans that address these macro challenges, capture near-term growth opportunities and support VinFast delivery target of 80,000 EVs for 2024. We are focused on balancing the twin objective of growth and profitability. To achieve growth, this means ramping up production, growing our dealership network and marketing the VinFast brand in new and selected markets. Concurrently, we will continue to enforce our cost reduction initiatives which have been progressing very well. Our CFO will elaborate in more details later. In 2024, the strategic decision to focus on the growth momentum in our home market, Vietnam, where we have clear advantages has helped greatly in balancing these two objectives above. Now let me first discuss our Q2 delivery results before I dive deeper into our key markets. We delivered 13,172 EVs in the quarter in line with our internal forecast. This was up by 44% quarter-over-quarter, 43% year-over-year and brings our total deliveries for the first half of the year to 22,348 vehicles representing 101% year-over-year growth. Zooming in, we found that sentiment amongst retail consumer in Vietnam was strong with B2C delivery in Vietnam seeing a growth of 108% year-over-year in the first half of 2024 and 146% quarter-over-quarter in Q2. As previously guided, delivery to related party customers, which were mainly to GSM, accounted for 51% of total deliveries in Q2, compared to 57% of that in Q1 2024 and 72% in full year 2023. Looking at our product mix, the VF 5 was the main volume driver since its launch in Q2 2023. The VF 5 has recorded a nine times increase in sales volume in just one year in Q2 2024 versus Q2 last year. During the quarter, the VF 5 accounted for 62% of total deliveries. The VF 8, VF e34 and VF 6 accounted for 30% of total deliveries this quarter. Given that it is still early days for newer models like VF 6, VF 7 we have seen very encouraging month-over-month growth. For E-scooters, we delivered 13,076 units in Q2, up by 67% quarter-over-quarter and 28% year-over-year. Starting off with our home market, Vietnam, which was the main contributor of our Q2 growth. The strong foundation that Vingroup together with VinFast had built around the green mobility ecosystem led to increased consumer awareness about the VinFast brand and our electric vehicles. We believe that such brand recognition play a pivotal role in accelerating the adoption of EVs. Based on public data from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association, VinFast recorded the highest year-over-year growth during the first half of 2024 amidst a flat passenger vehicle market. The VF 5 has already established the leading market share in the A-segment. One of the most talked about products in the market recently is our unique mini four seater e-SUV VF 3. The new EV model's stylish useful look was very well received. We had 28,000 non-refundable pre orders within just 66 hours of launch. With its affordable pricing, VF 3 is the perfect product for two-wheeler customers who are looking to switch to four-wheelers. With the delivery of VF 3 starting in Q3 this year, we have completed the development of all the seven e-SUV models. The Vietnam EV market is still in very early days and has a long way to go to reach its peak. VinFast currently has the majority market share of EVs in our home market. Our commanding market position was built on the lack of competition from local car manufacturers and extremely high barriers of entry faced by foreign EV players. Given the strong customer recession to EVs in Vietnam, we expect the momentum in our home market to be the main driver for our full year target, which will offset the near-term uncertainty in other markets. Let's discuss our other existing markets, North America. For the US, we made the strategic decision to push out the timing of our North Carolina plant in response to current macroeconomic uncertainties. This does not change our long-term business plan and is part of ongoing assessment of our key markets as a multinational company. Lan Anh will provide more details about the near-term CapEx savings as part of the capital reallocation from this decision. Q2 was a transition period for VinFast in the US. As we adjusted our lease offering in response to ongoing discounting and sales incentive by other OEMs. We laid the groundwork for further customer traction focusing on building brand awareness through our dealer network. We have also established a dealer advisory council as part of an initiative to get more timely insight into our sales and service strategy. We currently have 14 dealer stores across seven states in addition to our showrooms in California. While acknowledging the challenges in the US during the quarter, we are encouraged by the uptick that we have seen in July and August because of the enhancement made to the model year 2024 for the VF 8. In the coming months, we plan to launch the VF 9, VF 6 and VF 7 at the end of the year. Our expanded offering will enable VinFast to widen our reach to US customers and address the demand for affordable e-SUVs. The decision by several OEMs to cancel or delay the launch of affordable e-SUVs will actually present an opportunity for VinFast to fill the gap in this segment. In Canada, we had a good quarter with a 15% growth quarter-over-quarter. We also see good traction continue in Q3, while delivery in July and August already achieved by the highest levels in the last 12 months. Product planning for Canada will be very similar to that in the US. Now, let's visit the new markets, Southeast Asia and India. In Southeast Asia, we expedited our entry into Indonesia and the Philippines to capitalize on the increased customer awareness towards new energy vehicles. Despite being a new entrant to Indonesia less than six months ago, we have already established 15 showrooms covering big cities such as Jakarta and Surabaya as of August 31st. We shipped the first VF e34 in right hand drive configuration and started delivery to our customer in the market. Our innovative go-to market strategy in a competitive market like Indonesia has gained traction with local customers. Almost 100% of our sales and reservation in Indonesia have been driven by our differentiated unique battery leasing offering. We expect the battery leasing program to be well received in the Philippines as well and it will further validate our efforts to address EV affordability. In India, we signed a number of LOIs with dealers in 15 major district and cities. VinFast's assembly plant in Tamil Nadu with an initial capacity of 50,000 electric vehicle per year is on track to commence operation in 2025. As a recap, despite taking a prudent approach during Q2, we have also made significant progress in building our global distribution network with dealership network deliveries increasing quarter-over-quarter and accounting for 23% of second quarter delivery. As of August 31st, we had established 155 showrooms across all markets with approximately 70% being dealers stores. The second quarter served as a crucial transition period for VinFast allowing us to reflect on our strategies, strengthen our competitiveness in our home market and expand both our global distribution network and product portfolio, laying a solid foundation for achieving our delivery target this year. With that I will pass the call over to Lan Anh to discuss our financial results for the quarter.