On the early morning of August 8, 2020, another Chinese new force in car-making, XPeng Motors (XPeng), officially submitted its IPO documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and planned to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with stock code “XPEV”.
Just a week ago, Li Auto was listed on NASDAQ, and now XPeng has released its prospectus for listing in the US. This means that the top 3 Chinese smart electric vehicle companies, NIO, Li Auto and XPeng, will gather on Wall Street.
According to the prospectus, XPeng plans to raise 100 million US dollars but the IPO price has not yet been determined, and the final amount of funding remains to be confirmed. The 100 million US dollars is just a placeholder.
Sales:
In the first half of 2020, XPeng Motors sold a total of 4,698 new cars, and as of the end of July 2020, XPeng Motors has delivered 20,707 cars, including 18,741 G3s and 1,966 P7s.
Autonomous driving:
As of June 30, 2020, the accumulated mileage for the ACC and XPILOT driving assistance systems has reached 25.1 million kilometers and 11.1 million kilometers respectively.
Next car model:
XPeng’s third car model is expected to be launched at the end of 2021. This model is a car with a longer wheelbase than the G3, based on the David platform. From the above information, it seems that this car will be in direct competition with the Model 3.
Personnel:
As of June 30, 2020, XPeng Motors has 3,676 employees in China and the US, with approximately 43% of the employees focused on research and development, including 66%, 17%, and 17% devoted to car design and engineering, autonomous driving, and intelligent operation systems, respectively.
Financials:
In the first half of 2020, XPeng Motors recorded a revenue of RMB 1.003 billion, a gross loss of RMB 36.116 million, and a gross margin of -3.6%, which was significantly narrower than the same period last year (-38.23%). Research and development expenses were RMB 630 million, and the net loss in the first half of the year was RMB 795 million.
Shareholders:
Before the IPO, XPeng Motors had a 40.9% stake held by its management team, of which He XPeng held the largest share of 31.6%, and Alibaba held the largest external share of 14.4%. Other major shareholders also included Xiaomi, GGV Capital, and Sequoia Capital China. In addition, XPeng Motors has completed a total of more than 900 million U.S. dollars in investment in the past month, in which Alibaba, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia, and Qatar Investment Authority all participated.
Financing Process Review:
- In March 2016, XPeng Motors completed its Pre-A round of financing;
- On June 12, 2017, XPeng Motors announced that it had completed a 2.2 billion yuan Series A financing round led by UCAR Incubation Fund;
- On January 29, 2018, XPeng Motors announced the start of a 2.2 billion yuan Series B financing round;
- On November 13, 2019, XPeng Motors announced the completion of a 400 million U.S. dollars Series C financing round, with investors including Xiaomi Corporation and company founder He XPeng. In addition to the 400 million U.S. dollar financing, XPeng Motors also announced obtaining unsecured credit loans totaling several billion yuan from China Merchants Bank, CITIC Bank, HSBC, and other banks;
- On July 20, 2020, XPeng Motors completed a nearly 500 million U.S. dollars Series C+ financing round, with main investors including Aspex, Coatue, Hillhouse Capital, and Sequoia Capital China;
- In August 2020, XPeng Motors received over 300 million U.S. dollars in financing, led by Alibaba Group, with participation from Qatar Investment Authority.
The year 2020 was hailed as the year of China’s intelligent electric vehicles. Despite the US’s efforts to suppress and sanction Chinese technology companies, new automakers have gone public in the US one after another. Has the era of electric vehicles arrived?
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.