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Chinese electric car start-up WM Motor files to go public in Hong Kong

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Chinese electric car manufacturer WM Motor filed Wednesday in Hong Kong to become public. Here is a picture of one the cars at WM Motor’s Shanghai shopping center.

Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese electric car start-up WM Motor filed Wednesday to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The electric car manufacturer, also known as Weltmeister has disclosed that its annual losses have doubled in the past three years, to 8.2 billion Yuan ($1.2billion). However, revenue increased more than twice during this time and rose by 170% to about 4.7 billion Yuan in 2021.

The public version of the filingPrices were not provided.

China has the fastest-growing electric car market in the world, but automakers like BYD or Tesla still dominate. Chinese companies such as NioAnd Xpeng — both listed in the U.S. and Hong Kong — have made headlines, but still have a small portion of the market.

WM Motor also sold fewer cars. According to the company’s filing, it had sold only 83 495 electric cars as of December 31, 2018, since the launch of its first model in September 2018.

Xpeng also launched its first model at the same time. According to Xpeng, its cumulative sales reached 137.953 as of December. Nio claimed that it has 167,070 cumulative deliveries as of December 31, although its initial car was launched about a year ahead of its competitors.

Freeman Shen from WM Motor, the CEO, told CNBC January that he anticipated nearly doubled demand in China for electric vehicles this year compared to last. However, he said that chip shortages, Covid-related supply chains disruptions, and other factors would affect demand. increase costs for companies making the cars.

According to the filing, WM Motor’s sedans and SUVs are sold at prices ranging from 160,800 yuan up to 280,000 yuan. This is similar to Xpeng’s price range.

In Wednesday’s filing, the company stated that its competitive advantages included a strong focus on mainstream markets and self-owned manufacturing plants.

WM Motor reported that it had spent 27% of its revenues on research and development by the end of 2013, while Xpeng claimed that they spent 19.6%.

CNBC Pro has more information about electric cars

However, Xpeng has more than triple the headcount at 13,978WM Motor filed 3,952 filings for last year, whereas employees compared to WM Motor.

WM Motor claimed that 1,141 of its employees were in research and developing, representing 28.9%. The largest share was held by manufacturing workers, with 54.1%.

Xpeng compared this to a team of 5,271 research and development employees. They accounted for 45%. The total number of research and development workers accounted for 38%.

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