Chinese EV manufacturer Xpeng pursues US IPO

It would make Xpeng the third EV maker in China to list in the US after Nio and Li Auto.

Alibaba is the largest external shareholder with a 14.4% stake, followed by IDG Capital with 6.2%. Other private equity shareholders include GGV Capital, Centurium Capital, and Primavera Capital, with 3.8%, 3.5% and 3.2%, respectively.

Last week, Alibaba led an approximately $300 million round. According to a prospectus, Alibaba contributed $215 million in the  round, while Mubadala Investment Company committed $100 million.

This came only two weeks after Xpeng raised $500 million in an extended Series C round that featured Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital China, as well as hedge funds Aspex Management and Coatue Management. Xpeng told AVCJ the extended Series C has raised $900 million, taking total funding to about $2.7 billion.

Xpeng was established by Xiaopeng He in 2015 after he sold web browser UCWeb to Alibaba. A longstanding Tesla fan, He backed an EV development team that spun out from Guangzhou Automotive Industry Group, which led to the creation of Xpeng.

He nurtured this interest while serving as president of Alibaba’s mobile business group. His background in the internet industry is believed to have helped Xpeng excel in smart functions and over-the-air updates.

The company launched an SUV called G3 in November 2018 and a four-door sports sedan P7 in May. According to IHS Markit, the G3 was among the top-three best-selling electric SUVs in China. The P7 has a range of up to 706 kilometers on a single charge, which is the longest among EVs available in China.

As of July, Xpeng had delivered 18,741 units of the G3 with a price of about RMB150,000 and 1,966 units of the P7 at about RMB300,000.  Li Auto’s SUV entered mass-production in November 2019 and had delivered 10,400 vehicles as of June, with an average selling price of RMB328,000.

Xpeng primarily targets the mid to high-end segment in China’s passenger vehicle market, with prices ranging from RMB150,000 to RMB300,000. This segment represented 30.6% of the local passenger vehicle market by sales volume in 2019 and had a higher EV penetration rate than other price segments.

Xpeng has grown its revenue from RMB9.7 million in 2018 to RMB2.32 billion in 2019. For the first half of 2020, revenue came to RMB1 billion, compared to RMB1.2 billion in the same period the prior year. This was attributed in part to fewer vehicles being delivered as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The company recorded a loss of RMB3,691.7 million in 2019,  compared to a loss of RMB1.4 billion in 2018. For the first six months of 2020, the loss was RMB795.8 million.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• IPO
• Cleantech
• China
• automobiles
• Electric Vehicles
• Alibaba Group