XPeng has completed about 4 billion USD C-round financing. Xiaomi has joined this investment.
Note that this investment of Xiaomi is different from Xiaomi’s CEO Jun Lei’s personal investment in NIO. This is the first time Xiaomi invested in a Chinese electric vehicle company.
Both companies will be collaborating further to expand IoT and intelligent vehicle fields, providing more possibilities for NEV’s scenario exploration and interconnection.
Jun Lei said that Xiaomi and XPeng have been carrying out very deep collaboration in the interconnection of smartphones and intelligent vehicles.
XPeng also said it has garnered “several billion” in Chinese yuan of unsecured credit lines from institutions such as China Merchants Bank, China CITIC Bank, and HSBC. XPeng didn’t elaborate when asked what “several billion” means.
Xpeng’s reaction
Brian Gu, XPeng Motors vice-chairman, and president added that the company has been able to hit most of its business and financing targets despite economic headwinds, uncertainties in the global markets, and government policy changes that have had a direct impact on overall auto sales in China.
In the long run, Xpeng remains optimistic about the Chinese EV industry. The country shipped 1.26 million units of alternative fuel cars last year, representing a 61.7% increase year-over-year, per data from CAAM. Of all the alternative energy passenger cars sold, 75% were all-electric.
With plans for an initial public offering, Xpeng may not be far off from testing investor sentiments. While it doesn’t yet have a timeline for selling shares to the public, Xpeng’s chief executive officer told CNBC in March that the startup will focus on “business before considering the IPO.”
