Motors Tracker

Li Auto, which had finished signing up share subscribers early, rose 43 percent on its first trading day on the Nasdaq yesterday, becoming the second Chinese new energy vehicle startup to list in the US after Nio. The Beijing-based firm's stock price [NASDAQ: LI] closed at USD16.46 with a USD13.9 billion market cap. It had started trading at USD15.50 in the morning and its initial public offering price was USD11.50 apiece. Set up in July 2015, Li Auto announced on June 24 that it had finished a USD550 million Round D financing, raising its value to USD4.1 billion. Besides fundraising purposes, an IPO should be good for talent acquisition and branding, founder Li Xiang told Tencent Tech. He had a quarter of the company's shares before the IPO and more than 70 percent of the voting rights, based on the prospectus. Meituan Dianping and its Chief Executive Wang Xing had a combined 24 percent stake. In the first quarter, Li Auto tripled its revenue to CNY852 million (USD121.9 millio...

Mercedez-Benz, Audi, BMW and other luxury carmakers have taken this year’s Chengdu Auto Show in southwestern Sichuan province by storm, investing heavily to debut a number of super sleek car models targeting China’s younger clientele. Even though the number of visitors to this year’s auto show, the biggest in western China, is less than in previous years, the three German brands have all upped the ante, expanding their exhibition floor space and filling them with a range of state-of-the-art autos, as China’s luxury car market shows no sign of slowing. Munich-based BMW had six new cars on show, including its latest 4 series coupe, a low-slung, aerodynamic, sporty fashion statement. The firm commanded an exhibition area of 3,210 square meters while Mercedez-Benz and Audi were not far behind with booths of almost 3,000 square meters. The three marques are all neck to neck in the battle for market share. Mercedez-Benz, owned by Germany’s Daimler, sold 346,000 units in China in the first ha...

The Covid-19 pandemic did little to control Tesla fans' hunger for the US firm's electric vehicles in its biggest foreign market during the second quarter. The auto firm sold USD1.4 billion worth of cars in China over the quarter, doubling from a year ago, the California-headquartered firm said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. Next, the company is recruiting big in Shanghai to start making Model Ys in its first overseas plant. Tesla’s total revenue slid 5 percent to USD6 billion in the second quarter, according to the same report. Revenue on the home turf fell 11 percent to USD3 billion. The company is hiring 1,000 employees at its Shanghai Gigafactory, including assembly workers and quality inspectors, it said in a statement on We Chat earlier this month. This is the first time that Tesla is recruiting designers in China. The campaign is partly in preparation for Model Ys, Tencent's tech news arm reported, citing an insider. The automaker...

Shares of Dongfeng Motor Group, one of China’s big four automakers, surged in Hong Kong after the company said it intends to issue stock on the Chinese mainland for the first time. Dongfeng Motor [HKG:0489] gained 13.5 percent today to HKD5.80 (75 US cents), the stock’s highest closing price since mid-March, after soaring almost as much as 27 percent earlier in the day. The   Wuhan-based   company is looking to sell up to 957 million shares, representing as much as 10 percent of its total outstanding after the sale, on Shenzhen's ChiNext growth-enterprise board, it said in an exchange filing late yesterday.The funds raised would go toward a new electric passenger vehicle brand, digital and service infrastructure, and supplement working capital. Founded in 1969, Dongfeng Motor’s parent company took the unit public in 2005. It has set up joint ventures with foreign car companies, including Japan's Honda Motor and France's PSA Group. In the first half of this year, Dongfeng Mo...

Great Wall Motors, Wuling Motors, SAIC Maxus Automotive and Jiangling Motors all displayed new pickup truck models at the ongoing Chengdu Motor Show in southwestern China as more Chinese cities lift their restrictions on driving small vans on urban roads. The pickup model is very popular in China but the lightweight truck has been banned from many cities’ streets because of environmental pollution, traffic management, road maintenance and other concerns. Since last year, however, several local governments have scrapped the ban and even first-tier cities are beginning to grant them entry. The major metropolises of Shanghai and Chongqing have recently announced they will ease restrictions. Beijing is actively looking into it, an official from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said not long ago. This paves the way for other first and second-tier cities to follow suit and is a rare market opportunity for carmakers, said Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger ...

Smart Automobile, a joint venture between Geely Holding Group and Mercedes-Benz, has named the top executives who will lead a new European subsidiary. Daimler veteran Dirk Adelmann has been appointed as CEO of Smart Europe and   Martin Günther,an experienced finance and controlling executive in Mercedes-Benz’s aftersales division, will serve as its chief financial officer, Smart Auto’s parent companies said in a joint statement yesterday. “After holding several executive sales and marketing roles in the global Mercedes-Benz network, Dirk Adelmann successfully transformed Smart into an electric-only brand on the retail level,” they said. The   wholly owned   unit will be   headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, and will be in charge of the brand’s supply, sales and aftersales service in Europe. Smart Automobile’s   global operations will be run out of the Hangzhou Bay New Area of Ningbo in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, with marketing centers in China and Germa...

Chinese healthcare service firm Evergrande Health Industry Group is proposing to change its name to China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group as it sees its main line of business shifting to the electric vehicle sector, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today. The company, which is a unit of one of China’s largest property developers Evergrande Group, is developing its NEV business at full throttle and aims to become the world’s largest and most powerful green energy car company within the next three to five years, the Guangzhou-based firm said. The proposal still needs to be approved by shareholders and the Registrar of Companies in the Hong Kong, it added. Evergrande Health’s heavy investment in its NEV business,   which is still in the development stage, led to losses of CNY4.95 billion (USD707 million) last year on revenue of CNY5.64 billion. Fixed assets and equipment still need to be purchased and research and development costs remain high, it said in an...