Vietnamese electric vehicle automaker VinFast has slashed around 80 jobs in North America, including its US market chief financial officer, at a time when the carmaker is aiming for a US market stock listing. Investors might now question the company's overall financial health.

Per Bloomberg, CFO Rodney Haynes has departed the company as it aims to restructure its US operations. There were also firings in Canada though the exact number is unknown.

Last month, VinFast announced it was consolidating its US and Canadian operations into a single entity called VinFast North America. Its headquarters will be in Los Angeles, California. Van Anh Nguyen will remain as CEO of the combined operations, and she's also CEO of VinFast US Manufacturing. VinFast claims the restructuring will help serve customers in this market.

"This also leads to the streamlining of our North American operations and there are certain departments affected by this," the carmaker said in an official statement. VinFast is currently waiting to receive approval to begin construction of a $4 billion production facility in North Carolina for the VF 8 and VF 9 EV SUVs. The goal is to begin production sometime next year.

Perhaps the biggest news surrounding VinFast is that it filed for an IPO in December on the NASDAQ, a move that should help generate revenue to grow the company. However, VinFast might have a bigger problem to contend with at the moment: an EV price war that was started by Tesla.

Ford has already responded with its decision to drop the price tag of its Mustang Mach-E while Hyundai and Volkswagen have confirmed their respective prices will remain the same. Lucid, another startup EV maker, is also facing increasing pressure to lower its prices. VinFast announced last month it is examining new promotions to keep the brand competitive but nothing has been announced yet.

The first US deliveries of the VF 8 got underway in December and, like Tesla and Lucid, are being sold through a direct sales model. VinFast has opened a few stores in California that will offer owners service and other key information. The larger VF 9 is targeting an early 2023 on-sale date, while the recently revealed and smaller VF 6 and VF 7 will arrive sometime later in the year.