VinFast Is Losing An Astonishing Amount Of Money

Good morning! It’s Thursday, September 4, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you’ll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning’s edition, VinFast continues to burn money like there’s no tomorrow, Japan and the U.S. are in striking distance of a deal on tariffs, BYD cuts its yearly sales target as demand cools, and Polestar takes a massive hit thanks to tariffs.

If there’s one thing VinFast and its CEO, Pham Nhat Vuong, love, it’s burning through massive wads of cash. The Vietnamese EV maker reported a wider second-quarter net loss as it stepped up spending on a fraught global expansion scheme and marketing to kick-start demand for its ambitious growth strategy.

VinFast reported a net loss of $812 million in the quarter that ended on June 30, a 15% jump over the previous quarter. That being said, revenue did actually rise 1.9% from the prior quarter, and 91.6% year-on-year to $663 million, so that’s something. From Reuters:

The EV maker […] reaffirmed its commitment to achieving breakeven by the end of 2026. Founder and CEO Pham Nhat Vuong last month pledged an additional $1.5 billion to the automaker in exchange for R&D assets to support its expansion plans.

VinFast is intensifying promotional activities in its home market while shifting from a company-owned showroom model to a lighter, dealership-based approach to expand more quickly and reduce costs.

The company recently opened a new assembly plant in India and has plans to establish another facility in Indonesia as it seeks to strengthen its footprint across Asia.

For whatever reason, people are actually buying VinFast’s vehicles. Deliveries climbed 172% year-on-year to 35,837 vehicles in the quarter, bringing total deliveries in the first half of 2025 to 72,167. That’s still well short of VinFast’s annual sales target of 200,000 units, but it’s not awful.

Japan and the United States are apparently in the final stages of talks to bring down tariffs on Japanese vehicles that are imported to the U.S. within 10-14 days of President Trump actually signing his executive order. By the end of this month, the U.S. tariff rate on Japanese vehicles could come down from 27.5% to 15%, according to a source within the Japanese government. 

Right now, the exact date to be specified in the executive order is still under discussion, the source said. They added that the final decision would rest with Trump. Back in July, the U.S. agreed to lower tariffs on Japanese automotive imports, but the timing remains unclear as Trump has yet to actually sign the order. From Reuters:

Japan’s top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa flew to Washington on Thursday to press the United States over issuing the executive order.

The executive order is also expected to include provisions that the 15% levy agreed in July would not be stacked on Japanese imports that are subject to higher tariffs, while items previously subject to less than 15% tariffs would be adjusted to 15%, the source said.

The two governments are working to include in the executive order some context on the tariff deal, including Japan’s plans to expand U.S. rice imports and purchases of U.S.-made aircraft, according to the source.

A joint statement outlining the July agreement and a memorandum clarifying rules for Japan’s planned $550 billion U.S.-bound investment package are also expected to be issued alongside the executive order.

Of course, a 15% tariff is still not ideal for manufacturers, the government, or consumers, but it could be the best everyone is going to get while Trump is in office.

BYD is cutting its sales target for 2025 by 16% to 4.6 million vehicles as the Chinese EV-building giant faces its slowest growth in five years, strong competition, and a slightly cooling market. Earlier this year, it told analysts that it was targeting the sale of 5.5 million vehicles this year, but internally that number has been downgraded multiple times in recent months, according to people familiar with the situation. From Reuters:

The latest figure of at least 4.6 million vehicles was communicated inside the company and to select suppliers last month to help guide planning, according to the people, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.

The target remains subject to change depending on market conditions, the people added.

[…]

The people didn’t give a reason for the cut. However, one of them said it comes as BYD feels the heat from growing competition with rivals such as Geely Auto and Leapmotor.

The latest target is well below several recently lowered forecasts from analysts. This week, Deutsche Bank said it expected BYD to sell 4.7 million vehicles while Morningstar said it expected 4.8 million. 

The revised 2025 target represents a 7% increase from 2024, and it would be the slowest annual growth since 2020, when sales fell by 7%.

Polestar cannot catch a break, man. The automaker just took a $739 million writedown on the Polestar 3 because of high U.S. tariffs and cooling demand for electric vehicles. It contributed to a wider second-quarter net loss of $1.03 billion — up from $268 million just a year earlier. At least revenue rose a bit: 37% to $791 million. From Bloomberg:

Polestar has lost most of its market value since being spun out of Volvo Car AB in 2022 and listing on Nasdaq. Chief Executive Officer Michael Lohscheller arrived last year with a turnaround plan that included selling more cars via dealerships and scaling back its presence in China. But the manufacturer has struggled with soft demand, growing trade frictions and rising competition.

The company, which withdrew 2025 guidance earlier this year, is still targeting compound annual retail sales volume growth of as much as 35% until 2027. It’s also looking for further cooperation, especially with sister carmaker Volvo, which is also controlled by Chinese billionaire Li Shufu.

The Geely founder in June injected $200 million into Polestar, but the company is still seeking to secure new equity and debt funding.

Polestar needs a bit of Hail Mary at this point, and it’s hoping the introduction of its Polestar 5 grand tourer at next week’s Munich auto show could be just the ticket. We’ll have an up-close look at it very soon, so be on the lookout for that.

History.com

It’s pretty wild that the best talent American Idol ever produced came in its inaugural season. Since then, it’s just been looking for that same spark. Hell, all of these singing shows have. No one does it like you, Kelly. If you want to learn more, head over to History.com.

Sorry, folks. I’m still on a major Oasis kick after Monday’s concert. You’re going to have to deal with it.