The Vietnamese electric vehicle start-up
VinFast Auto
made a splash with its pickup truck at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas Tuesday.
VinFast unveiled the VF Wild pickup truck. A prototype is on-site in Las Vegas, but the Wild is intended for production and sale. VinFast is currently selling two SUVs in the U.S.—the VF8 and VF9.
VinFast has been using the word “wild” in its CES teasers, and now investors know the Wild is a truck—one that will eventually join the likes of the
Tesla
Cybertruck,
Rivian
R1T,
Ford
F-150 Lightning, and Chevy Silverado in the U.S. market.
Details are thin, but the truck is about 209 inches long. That is a little longer than a Ford Maverick and a little shorter than an R1T—making the Wild a midsize truck. The Lightning, Silverado, and Cybertruck are full-size trucks. A Cybertruck is about 224 inches long.
It isn’t known when the Wild will be delivered in the U.S.
VinFast stock closed down 2.1% at $6.65 a share, while the
S&P 500
was off about 0.2% and the
Nasdaq Composite
was up about 0.1%. VinFast stock didn’t rise, but the shares are notoriously volatile. Through Tuesday trading, the shares were down about 20% year to date.
VinFast stock is also down more than 90% from an all-time high of about $93 a share, set in August, shortly after the company completed its merger with a special purpose acquisition company or SPAC. Shares are up more than 40% from lows reached on Oct. 25.
Whatever the stock does, the news should be a positive for VinFast. Product line expansion is typically beneficial for any EV start-up.
Along with the Wild, VinFast also announced an electric bicycle at CES—called the DrgnFly—as well as an automated mirror adjustment system called Mirror Sense. It moves the car mirror automatically, based on where the driver is looking. Mirror Sense received a CES innovation award.
Those are nice additions, but the truck is likely what investors will talk about most.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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