HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast said on Thursday it delivered about 97,000 cars last year, nearly three times as many as in 2023, but sales were almost exclusively in its domestic market.  

The company said it planned to at least double global sales this year, buoyed by a large increase in deliveries in the last quarter of 2024, when it sold more than 53,000 cars, more than half its total annual sales.

The 2024 deliveries exceeded a revised-down sales target of 80,000 units. VinFast had initially planned to sell 100,000 cars last year.  

"VinFast's 2024 results exceeded expectations, demonstrating resilience in the face of market fluctuations and macroeconomic volatility," said VinFast Chairwoman Thuy Le.       

The startup is pursuing an aggressive but costly expansion strategy in Vietnam, where it can rely on a growing market of nearly 100 million people. In the last quarter, sales were also boosted by the introduction of a much cheaper and smaller model.    

However, the company lost nearly $2 billion in the first three quarters of last year, latest available data show, after posting $2.4 billion in losses in 2023. That is putting pressure on its parent company, Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup.

The carmaker also wants to expand abroad but has so far struggled to attract foreign buyers.

In a previous statement in January, VinFast said it had sold more than 87,000 units in Vietnam last year. Barring a revision of its own figures, that would mean only about 10,000 cars were sold abroad, around 10% of total sales. 

Last year the company postponed plans for a factory in the United States, in what appeared as a shift to Asian markets, and in particular to India and Indonesia, where it plans to establish two assembly factories.

VinFast did not provide a breakdown of sales by market. 

Most of its sales in Vietnam in 2023 were to companies linked to its owner Pham Nhat Vuong, including electric taxi operator Green SM, or GSM, which in the last quarter of 2024 overtook Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab as the top taxi company in Vietnam, according to research firm Mordor Intelligence. 

A full breakdown of domestic buyers for last year is not available, but in the third quarter about 20% of total deliveries went to VinFast's related parties, according to its quarterly earnings. 

The company is expected to release full-year results on April 24.