VinFast plans to build electric vehicle plants in India and Indonesia, while its founders and others are expected to inject $1.2 billion in cash.。The Nasdaq-listed electric car maker hopes to enter 50 markets by the end of 2024。

Vietnam-based VinFast also said on the evening of October 5 that it sold 10,027 electric vehicles in the third quarter, up slightly from 9,535 in the second quarter, most of which went to founder Pham Nhat Vuong's taxi company.。

Vuong controls most of VinFast2.3 billion privately held shares。Documents filed with the SEC on Oct. 5 show he will sell 46 million shares over the next six months to raise the remaining roughly $700 million he promised to give the loss-making automaker.。

He allegedly donated 2 to the company in September..$9.1 billion, and the company expects to receive another $500 million in funding from its parent company, Vingroup.。

VinFast made history in August, becoming the only Vietnamese company to list in the US.。Owen Lamont, an analyst and former Yale University professor of finance, said its stock price subsequently experienced "unusual price volatility."。Since less than 1% of VinFast's stock is trading, its share price multiplied by Vuong's super-large stake can give the company a fairly high valuation, once exceeding that of U.S. automaker Ford (Ford).。VinFast closed October 5 at 8.$50, compared with a high of nearly $69 at the end of August。

The securities filing said VinFast had "optimized its production capex plan," which would save $400 million, roughly evenly split between the two new plants in Phase 1.。

The savings are expected to be used to build CKD plants in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's most populous country, and India, the world's third-largest auto market.。

"CKD" refers to completely disassembled cars, which means VinFast or transporting such vehicles from Haiphong, Vietnam, and then assembling them in India and Indonesia。The company aims to produce 50,000 electric vehicles per plant per year and start production in 2026.。

The manufacturer said in May that it would sell electric vehicles throughout Southeast Asia, in addition to Europe and Canada.。This year, the company became the first Vietnamese company to export vehicles to the United States, but the industry gave poor reviews and recalled the vehicles due to potential safety issues.。The company also produces electric motorcycles and buses in Vietnam.。

VinFast Chief Financial Officer David Mansfield said that VinFast is "moving to a capital-light distribution model" that will allow it to "improve profitability" while "being well positioned to expand into strategic markets such as Indonesia and India."。