Chinese language electrical automobile firm WM Motor, or Weltmeister, filed Wednesday to go public in Hong Kong. Pictured right here is likely one of the firm’s vehicles in a shopping center in Shanghai.
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BEIJING — Chinese language electrical automobile start-up WM Motor filed Wednesday to go public on the Hong Kong Inventory Alternate.
Also referred to as Weltmeister, the electrical automobile firm disclosed its annual losses doubled during the last three years to eight.2 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), whereas income greater than doubled throughout that point, rising by about 170% to 4.7 billion yuan in 2021.
The public version of the filing didn’t embody pricing info.
Though China’s electrical automobile market is the biggest globally and a fast-growing one, automakers akin to BYD and Tesla dominate gross sales. Chinese language start-ups akin to Nio and Xpeng — each listed within the U.S. and Hong Kong — have made headlines, however nonetheless have a small portion of the market.
WM Motor has offered even fewer vehicles. The corporate mentioned within the submitting that as of Dec. 31, it has offered 83,495 electrical vehicles since its first mannequin launched in September 2018.
Xpeng launched its first mannequin across the similar time, and mentioned its cumulative deliveries reached 137,953 as of the top of December. Nio mentioned its cumulative deliveries totaled 167,070 as of the top of December, though it launched its first automobile a few yr earlier than its start-up rivals.
WM Motor CEO Freeman Shen advised CNBC in January he anticipated demand for electrical autos in China this yr to just about double from final yr. He mentioned, nonetheless, chip shortages and Covid-related provide chain disruptions would increase costs for companies making the cars.
WM Motor’s SUVs and sedans promote in a value vary of about 160,800 yuan to 280,000 yuan, the submitting confirmed. That is just like Xpeng’s value vary.
The corporate mentioned in Wednesday’s submitting its aggressive benefits embody a give attention to the mainstream market, self-owned manufacturing services and powerful analysis and growth capabilities.
As of the top of final yr, the submitting confirmed WM Motor spent 20.7% of income on analysis and growth, whereas Xpeng reported it spent 19.6% of income on such analysis.
Nonetheless, Xpeng has more than triple the headcount at 13,978 workers versus WM Motor’s 3,952, filings confirmed for the top of final yr.
WM Motor mentioned it had 1,141 workers in analysis and growth, or 28.9% of a complete headcount. Manufacturing staff accounted for the best share, at 54.1%.
For comparability, Xpeng mentioned its gross sales and advertising crew accounted for the best share of its workers, at 45%. A complete of 5,271 analysis and growth workers accounted for 38% of headcount.