Vietnam’s EV maker VinFast is heading in the right direction to begin production within the U.S. in 2024

Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast told CNBC it’s heading in the right direction to begin production within the U.S. by 2024 despite the fact that the corporate is cutting its headcount in North America.

Vietnam’s first domestic automaker previously announced plans to go public within the U.S.

Just this week, VinFast — the automotive arm of Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate Vingroup — announced it would be cutting jobs within the U.S. in a restructuring exercise that can consolidate its operations across the U.S. and Canada.

“After last 12 months’s commentary, we see numerous similarity within the two markets and consolidating the 2 markets will allow us to be stronger and more agile,” said Le Thi Thu Thuy, VinFast CEO, in an interview with CNBC’s J.P. Ong on Friday.

The news concerning the job cuts come on the heels of a Reuters report on Feb. 3 that VinFast will probably be delaying deliveries to its first customers within the U.S.

VinFast shipped its first batch of cars to the U.S. in November, which included 999 VF 8s. It had plans to deliver them by the top of December but has since delayed shipments to February.

Le told CNBC on Friday they’ve about 12,000 pre-orders within the U.S.

The automaker has been ramping up its U.S. expansion to tackle American automakers akin to Tesla and announced it would be establishing a production plant in North Carolina to fabricate EVs.

Le said the layoffs is not going to affect the planned timeline for production to begin at its first North American manufacturing plant.

“We’re in the ultimate stages of getting a permit to check the development however the land has already been cleared. The state has already worked on the infrastructure for the land as well,” she told CNBC.

“We still plan to begin the trial production in 2024 as originally planned,” Le said. The annual production capability of the plant is 150,000 electric vehicles, in accordance with the corporate’s release.

The following markets VinFast plans to focus on will probably be in Europe, namely Germany, France and the Netherlands, said the CEO.

Nevertheless, VinFast vehicles don’t currently qualify for the $7,500 tax credit within the U.S. because they should not inbuilt the country, but are inbuilt Vietnam. Prices for the 2023 VinFast VF 8 model start from $40,700.

“We immediately accelerated our plan for the North Carolina plant. Luckily, we had already signed that agreement before the Inflation Reduction Act,” Le said.

“We didn’t see it coming but we at all times [planned] to have a plant within the U.S. so the IRA increased our manufacturing capability within the U.S. to ensure that our customers will have the option to have access to electric vehicles at an affordable pricing.”

“I think that in the long term [we are] going to pay attention the manufacturing of electrical vehicles in addition to the important thing components of electrical vehicles within the U.S.,” Le added.

VinFast filed for an initial public offering within the U.S. on Dec. 6. They’ve not disclosed the number nor price of the shares to be traded, in accordance with its prospectus. It’s also not known after they exactly plan to list.

“We have now been watching the intensity of the market and I believe this 12 months, the market has been a little bit bit higher. We’re ready but we’d like the market to be more cooperative for us to make the IPO occur,” said Le.

When asked about when the IPO is predicted to occur, she said: “After we are able to talk more about it, we will probably be comfortable to share more.”