By Phuong Nguyen
(Reuters) – Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) maker VinFast is cutting its workforce in the United States amid a restructuring in its major overseas market as the startup grapples with a stalled shipment of its first cars and prepares for a potential stock listing, the company said on Monday.
A spokesperson said headcount would not shrink in Vietnam where most of the company’s staff is located. It was not immediately clear how many jobs would be affected. VinFast had hired about 150 people in the United States, many in sales, support and distribution roles as part of a model that bypasses traditional dealerships. VinFast, which started operations in 2019, said last week that it would delay its first batch of deliveries to the United States to the second half of February. In late January, the company said it was merging its U.S. and Canadian operations into a single business unit. It did not announce any job cuts at the time.
(Additional reporting by Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Francesco Guarascio and Kanupriya Kapoor)
