Getting into global trends early, one way or another, is an ideal way to find lucrative long-term investment wins -- but it's certainly easier said than done. Electric vehicle (EV) makers have massive upside, but come with equally massive risk. EV automakers that focus just on EVs are young companies, often burning through cash and trying to build brands and scale while markets throw curveballs like removing EV tax credits and implementing automotive tariffs.
Rivian Automotive (RIVN +3.87%) and Lucid Motors (LCID +1.86%) both have some positive momentum in addition to their risks, but VinFast Auto (VFS +2.74%) should make investors think twice.
Image source: Rivian.
Tantalizing potential
As the global roadways begin to fill with EVs, it offers investors more growth than the historical automotive markets have. Global EV sales are increasing and expected to grow at a 25% clip annually through 2030.
Rivian and Lucid, while still unprofitable for investors, have both taken significant strides in their business. Rivian has worked diligently and impressively to reverse significant gross profit losses and achieved its first full-year gross profit in 2025 -- reversing the prior year's $1.2 billion gross profit loss. It's currently launching its R2, which will open the doors to a broader, more price-sensitive market.
Lucid is a step behind its rival Rivian, but has worked through a growing history of production speed bumps to launch and accelerate the production -- even if more slowly than anticipated -- of its Gravity SUV. In fact, this improved production has paved the way for Lucid to post eight consecutive quarters of record deliveries.
VinFast, on the other hand, is a much more complicated potential EV investment. The Vietnamese automaker dominates its home market, has the backing of an uber-wealthy founder and parent company, and by all accounts has state-of-the-art manufacturing. The EV maker has aggressively and expensively pushed international expansion, including into the U.S., but losses continue to mount with little evidence that it will turn around.
NASDAQ: VFS
Key Data Points
Growth at all costs
Despite VinFast's fourth-quarter losses widening and costs rising, the automaker is committed to resuming construction at its North Carolina factory in 2026, which was previously put on hold in 2024 and is now expected to begin operations in 2028. That said, the factory is most likely to be much smaller than first intended, and some of the incentives promised from the state are in question depending on VinFast's commitment to jobs and other agreements.
As the EV maker continues to push international expansion at seemingly all costs, VinFast's fourth-quarter net loss increased 15% year over year to $1.3 billion. In 2024 alone, it reported a net loss of over $3 billion, and it's estimated that VinFast has lost roughly $11 billion since 2021.
VinFast's data isn't all bad, to be fair. The company's unit economics are edging in the right direction, with research and development accounting for 7% of revenue during the fourth quarter of 2025, VinFast's best level to date. Selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses checked in at 25% of revenue, compared to 40% during the prior year's fourth quarter, and its net loss margin improved 96% year over year.
VinFast has gone all-in on international expansion despite significant losses. There's simply too much risk to invest in VinFast until it further improves unit economics, narrows losses, and better balances its expensive growth. For investors willing to take on the risk of young EV stocks, Rivian, Lucid, and Tesla are worth looking at far before VinFast.
