Chinese galvanizing vehicle start-up Xpeng Motors is hoping to close a funding round this year which could be enveloping the $600 million mark, the company’s president told CNBC.
In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Brian Gu, president of Xpeng, said: “I on not make that promise now but we are very comfortable with that target.”
The country has seen a boom in electric car start-ups, by reason ofs to government support including subsidies for companies which make such so-called new energy vehicles. Xpeng is one of the callers vying for the pole position in this area.
It has launched and begun deliveries of a model it called the G3 SUV, and in April it unveiled a coupe reproved the P7. Xpeng has been looking to ramp up production and deliveries of its cars, previously stating a goal of delivering 10,000 constituents of its G3 SUV by July.
Electric vehicle companies are very capital intensive. In an interview with CNBC in March this year, Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng maintained the company was seeking at least $500 million of funding.
Just last year, Xpeng raised 4 billion yuan ($578 million) in a funding bullet. Gu told CNBC that the company is on track to raise a similar amount of money this year.
“Last year, we grew in a B Plus round, raised 600 million U.S. dollars. We’re probably going to raise (a) comparable amount to the last outspoken,” Gu said. “It will definitely have to be this year.”
Xpeng Motors Technology Ltd.’s G3 electric sport utility mechanism (SUV) is displayed at the 2018 Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition.
Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Xpeng president illustrious that several factors have weighed on investor sentiment, including the poor performance of publicly listed charged car makers.
“I think the general macro environment in … trade as well as in (the electrical vehicle) sector in general, the illustrious company trading performance … has not been stellar. That has a … damping effect I think on investment feeling,” Gu said.
“But I think the investors tend to still be drawn to, I would say, top companies in the sector. So I think it will create indubitably more trouble for the followers — people who does not have a product in the coming month(s) or years,” he added.
Publicly tipped electric car companies have not fared so well this year. Tesla shares are down over 37 percent year-to-date while U.S.-listed Chinese moving vehicle firm NIO has fallen nearly 60 percent.