Why VinFast Auto Stock Just Crashed

VinFast Auto (NASDAQ: VFS) stock, the Vietnamese maker of electric cars and bikes, tumbled 12% through 10:15 a.m. ET Friday after missing badly on earnings this morning.

Heading into the report, analysts already weren't optimistic, predicting VinFast would lose $0.26 per share in Q3. In fact, VinFast lost $0.41 per share, despite revenue surging 46.8% year over year to $718.6 million.

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VinFast Q3 earnings

But that news might not be as bad as it sounds. VinFast's bid to become a player in the electric car market appears to be faltering, but this failure couldn't come at a better time, as EV demand slumps -- and the popularity of electric bikes soars.

In Q3, you see, VinFast's sales of electric cars grew a very respectable 74%, but this growth rate was dwarfed by growth in deliveries of electric scooters and e-bikes. VinFast delivered more than 120,000 such smaller e-vehicles in Q3 -- more than six-fold growth year over year.

Most of these sales happened domestically, to be sure, in Vietnam. But VinFast also "strengthened its brand presence in India" and "expanded its dealer network to 33 locations" in Indonesia, where it now boasts a 5% EV market share. VinFast opened its first dealership in California, but overall, the greatest growth prospects appear to reside outside the U.S. of A.

Is VinFast stock a buy?

The question for investors is: Will VinFast realize this in time to adjust its business strategy before it runs out of money? Because... VinFast is fast running out of cash. Its balance sheet currently shows less than $440 million in cash versus $1.8 billion in long-term debt.

Worse, the company burned through more than $2.1 billion in just the first three quarters of 2025.

Sales growth notwithstanding, VinFast is currently a sell.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.