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Investors still relish the appetite for electric vehicle startups backed by SPACs. Just look at the amazing debut of VinFast.

The Vietnamese electric car maker began life on Tuesday as a Nasdaq-listed company thereafter Close Its merger with SPAC

Acquisition of black spade

(Stock ticker: BSAQ).

With the deal closed, Black Spade essentially becomes VinFast. The stock symbol changes to “VFS” from “BSAQ”.

Investors appeared elated after shareholders approved the merger on Thursday. Shares of Black Spade rose 73% to $18.50 per share, but fell 43% to $10.45 in Tuesday’s trading.

They should prepare for more ups and downs. Shares opened Tuesday at about $22 a share, were trading as low as $16 and were at about $28 a share at noon. the

Standard & Poor’s 500
And

NASDAQ Composite
They decreased by 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively.

The VinFast-Black Spade merger was a deal that investors were excited about. VinFast’s stock value was estimated at $23 billion, more than the market value of

Rivian Motors

(reef),

Lucid Group

(LCID), or

Polestar Motors

(PSNY). All three electric vehicle startups have some traction with investors.

At $18.50 a share, Thursday’s closing price, VinFast was valued at about $43 billion, just under

general motors

The market capitalization of GM is about $46 billion.

At $28 a share, VinFast has a market capitalization of more than $64 billion. That’s more than

Ford Motor

(F), General Motors, and many other automakers. It’s also worth more than Rivian, Lucid, and Polestar combined.

Every wild trade should remind investors of what things were like at the beginning of the SPAC boom.

Nikola

(NKLA) shares doubled on June 8, 2020, just days after closing its SPAC merger. Shares were at $79.73 the next day. They closed at $2.50 on Monday. It has been much more difficult for companies to build an electric vehicle business than investors initially imagined.

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Even so, VinFast already has significant sales and manufacturing capacity, two things that investors have used to differentiate electric vehicle startups. The company delivered 3,800 electric vehicles in April, the latest month for which data is available. It also sells electric vehicles in the United States, where Americans bought 740 VinFast VF8 SUVs in the second quarter.

VinFast CEO Thuy Le Barron That coming to the US early in the company’s journey was significant, even though US testing standards can be a little different than those in Europe and China.

“We focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, determination, and always being willing to challenge the status quo. This resonates very well in the American consciousness,” Lu said.

VinFast has the capacity to build around 300,000 electric vehicles annually. It has also begun construction on a $2 billion plant in North Carolina with a planned initial capacity of 150,000 vehicles per year.

VinFast’s 2023 sales should range from $1.8 billion to $2 billion. Rivian, Lucid, and Polestar are expected to have sales of $4.3 billion, $800 million, and $3.1 billion, respectively.

Now that VinFast is listed in the US, investors can look to analysts who cover the stock and issue estimates on sales and earnings, and anticipate favorable forecasts. With a market cap of around $50 billion, VinFast is one of the most valuable EV franchises on the planet. It’s one of the most valuable automakers, too.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com