Chinese electric automobile company WM Motor, or Weltmeister, filed Wednesday to go public in Hong Kong. Pictured here is certainly one of the corporate’s cars in a shopping center in Shanghai.
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BEIJING — Chinese electric automobile start-up WM Motor filed Wednesday to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Also often known as Weltmeister, the electrical automobile company disclosed its annual losses doubled over the past three years to eight.2 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), while revenue greater than doubled during that point, rising by about 170% to 4.7 billion yuan in 2021.
The general public version of the filing didn’t include pricing information.
Although China’s electric automobile market is the most important globally and a fast-growing one, automakers resembling BYD and Tesla dominate sales. Chinese start-ups resembling Nio and Xpeng — each listed within the U.S. and Hong Kong — have made headlines, but still have a small portion of the market.
WM Motor has sold even fewer cars. The corporate said within the filing that as of Dec. 31, it has sold 83,495 electric cars since its first model launched in September 2018.
Xpeng launched its first model around the identical time, and said its cumulative deliveries reached 137,953 as of the top of December. Nio said its cumulative deliveries totaled 167,070 as of the top of December, even though it launched its first automobile a couple of 12 months before its start-up rivals.
WM Motor CEO Freeman Shen told CNBC in January he expected demand for electric vehicles in China this 12 months to almost double from last 12 months. He said, nonetheless, chip shortages and Covid-related supply chain disruptions would increase costs for firms making the cars.
WM Motor’s SUVs and sedans sell in a price range of about 160,800 yuan to 280,000 yuan, the filing showed. That is much like Xpeng’s price range.
The corporate said in Wednesday’s filing its competitive benefits include a deal with the mainstream market, self-owned manufacturing facilities and powerful research and development capabilities.
As of the top of last 12 months, the filing showed WM Motor spent 20.7% of revenue on research and development, while Xpeng reported it spent 19.6% of revenue on such research.
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Nonetheless, Xpeng has greater than triple the headcount at 13,978 employees versus WM Motor’s 3,952, filings showed for the top of last 12 months.
WM Motor said it had 1,141 employees in research and development, or 28.9% of a complete headcount. Manufacturing employees accounted for the best share, at 54.1%.
For comparison, Xpeng said its sales and marketing team accounted for the best share of its employees, at 45%. A complete of 5,271 research and development employees accounted for 38% of headcount.
