On December 14, on the Facebook page with a green check mark believed to belong to former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a status line was posted with the following content: “Statement from the Government spokesman: The Prime Minister does not allow Vietnam’s VinGroup operates an electric taxi company in Cambodia.”
Accompanying this status is a text, recorded in Cambodian, with the following content:
“Statement by the spokesman of the Royal Government of Cambodia
On Wednesday, December 13, 2023, some media agencies reported that Vietnam’s VinGroup plans to launch 2,500 electric taxis in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. This information attracted the attention of some people on social networks and was shared, causing some people to misunderstand that this company will open a business in Cambodia.
The Cambodian Royal Spokesperson wants to inform the public that, during a meeting with Samdech Thipsay on the afternoon of December 12 in Hanoi, the Chairman of VinGroup actually made a request and expressed his desire to invest in opening a new taxi companies. However, Samdech Thibidi Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, did not grant the license as requested by the company.”
So it is clear that Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong’s intention to bring Green Taxi to Cambodia was blocked by young Prime Minister Hun Manet. It is unclear why the Prime Minister of Cambodia refused a foreign company to invest in his country. However, this also shows that Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong’s path to selling “electric cars” is facing significant obstacles, even though he is only expanding his scope of activities in Southeast Asia.
Currently, a large number of Mr. Vuong’s green taxis are lying on the ground. If he does not find a way to expand the electric taxi market, it will be difficult to consume all the cars this company produces.
In the Vietnamese market, it seems that the initial excitement of Vietnamese people is no longer there. Because, no matter how patriotic they are, product quality is the deciding factor. No one would spend a fortune to buy a defective product, which can even be dangerous for the buyer. This makes it difficult to expand the market right in Vietnam, let alone foreign markets.
It seems that the initiative to establish a taxi company to sell its own cars is just a temporary solution to VinFast’s car redundance problem. With so many green taxis lying on the beach, it is difficult for Mr. Vuong to sell all the products he produces.
The sales situation of VinFast cars in the North American market is also not positive. On August 16, when interviewed on VTV Money, VinFast CEO Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy said that all the electric cars brought to the Canadian market were sold out, there was not a single one left. Customers are also urging VinFast to provide more. The number of cars VinFast brought to Canada is 781 VF8s.
However, on the Canadian Government website, the number of VinFast cars both sold and rented, from the beginning of the year to the end of October 2023 (two and a half months after CEO Thuy gave an interview), totaled only 416 cars, most of which are for rent.
VinFast also announced that in the first 9 months of the year, they sold 21,342 cars in the North American market. Along with the number of cars sold in Canada, thus, VinFast had sold 20,561 cars in the US market. But at the end of November 2023, the California Energy Commission detailed the number of VinFast cars sold in each county. Detailed statistics show that, by the end of October 2023, VinFast had both sold and leased only 220 units in the US market.
Thus, VinFast faces difficulty in selling its cars in the North American market, plus raising capital on the Nasdaq market is not as expected. As for the domestic market, VinFast is also at a standstill, both in the number of cars sold and taxis. In addition, Vietnamese real estate is still in a prolonged freezing period. Vin is facing resistance in most of the industries it invests in. Currently, VinGroup can only hold out and wait for time, but how long will Vin hold out?
Thoibao.de (Translated)
