Chinese electric vehicle producer Xiaopeng Motors has plans to fundraise RMB17 billion ($2.7 billion) this year, Bloomberg reports, with investment being led by tech giants Alibaba and Foxconn.
Speaking at the Boao Forum yesterday, company founder He Xiaopeng said that pre-sales of the first model will begin by the end of April.
As of January, the start-up collected RMB5 billion, RMB2.2 billion coming from Alibaba and Foxconn combined.
EV companies are looking to take advantage of China’s government-lead shift towards a cleaner national energy policy, with generous subsidies for green technology and a reduction in oil as a share of total energy consumption. The country already accounts for over half of all EV sales worldwide, making China’s domestic market the world’s largest.
Elsewhere, market pioneer Tesla announced yesterday that it plans to recall close to 9,000 vehicles in China beginning the end of June, due to a global production issue involving steering control faults.