BY  ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese automaker VinFast, for a short time the third-most valuable car company in the world, has a big problem: It just can’t sell enough cars.

Idle factories bleed money and the company’s financial health is at stake. After finding the U.S. market a tough nut to crack, Vinfast is hoping its tiniest and cheapest car yet — a roughly 10-foot-long pure battery electric mini-SUV priced at $9,200 and called the VF3 — will become Vietnam’s “national car” and win over consumers in Asian markets.

Designed specifically for the Vietnamese and other Asian markets, the VF3 is priced for “mass appeal”, according to VinFast. It expects bigger sales for it than from earlier models that were meant mainly for export to western countries, Le Thi Thuy, Vingroup’s chairperson, said in an earnings call in April.

VinFast was dreaming of breaking into the big leagues