HAIPHONG, Vietnam — Vietnamese automaker Vinfast plunged right into the crowded and hypercompetitive US auto market, gambling that if it can sell its electric vehicles to finicky Americans, it can succeed anywhere.So far, that gamble has yet to pay off. Its CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that the US market is “difficult.
”Vinfast is a part of Vingroup, a sprawling conglomerate that began as an instant noodle company in Ukraine in the 1990s. The company built its first car in 2019 in a seaside factory close to Haiphong, where engineers monitor screens as gleaming metal sheets are expertly snatched by robotic arms and pressed to make frames, doors and other parts that are welded, assembled and painted before the vehicles are tested.