After NIO Inc. and ideal, XPeng Inc. became the "quasi-contestant" of the next IPO of new energy vehicles.

Just six days ago, Li Auto Inc. successfully landed on Nasdaq and closed up 43 per cent on the first trading day.The IPO subscription process was also so hot that the offering price was raised from a maximum of $10 to $11.50.

Compared with NIO Inc., who went public two years ago, now seems to be the best time. After the cold winter of car building, the capital market has regained its confidence. Not only Li Auto Inc. 's market feedback has exceeded expectations, NIO Inc. 's share price has also soared recently.

Tesla, Inc. 's continuous profits and soaring market value can also be seen as a signal that new energy vehicles have defeated traditional car companies for the first time and become the first place in the era of the transition between the old and the new.

Since the beginning of this year, Tesla, Inc. 's share price has never stopped rising, surpassing Toyota in market capitalization to become the world's largest car company by market capitalization.

Tesla, Inc. has become a weather vane for the capital market and a microcosm of the vast army of car builders-after years of dormancy and troughs, the turning point finally came in 2020.

The signal of the capital market was also quickly given to XPeng Inc.. The day after the ideal listing, the news about XPeng Inc. 's plan to go public began to spread, according to 36Kr Holdings.It has been learned from a number of management sources who are in contact with XPeng Inc. 's project that XPeng Inc. has recently set a time for listing in the United States, "as soon as August and no later than September at the latest."

However, XPeng Inc. did not respond to the listing rumors, but from the recent actions of XPeng Inc., there are indeed signs of paving the way for listing.

Less than half a month after XPeng Inc. 's $500m round of C+ financing, XPeng Inc. received more than $300m in financing, led by BABA Group and invested by Qatar Sovereign Fund (QIA).

This is not the first time that BABA has invested in XPeng Inc.. BABA participated in both XPeng Inc. 's round An and round B financing, but this is the first time to invest as a leading investor. According to 36Kr Holdings, a source saidXPeng Inc. 's $300m round of financing is almost for BABA, with only a small amount of participation from other investors.

BAT and others have long made bets on different new car companies. Meituan, Byte Jump Investment Li Auto Inc. and Tencent are NIO Inc. 's second largest shareholder, and Baidu, Inc. continues to bet on Weima Automobile.At this point, several Internet giants have a layout in the field of new cars.

The listing of the new power of car-building is also inseparable from the help of giants, just like before the ideal listing, Meituan gave a push and led the investment of US $500m in the month before the listing.And this time XPeng Inc. accelerated the process of IPO, BABA did the same, XPeng Inc. pushed forward.

Giants scramble to get on the bus, and new energy vehicles have become a new battlefield filled with gunpowder.

1 Accelerate IPO

He Xiaopeng is an extremely sensitive person to time.

Go to work at 7 o'clock every day and go to bed at 12:00. The time habit in life is accurate to "minutes". CEO, who is known as one of the best product managers in the mobile Internet era, once founded UC. He left BABA in August 2017 and officially joined XPeng Inc..

In fact, every step of his step is at the right time.

He Xiaopeng was born in Huangshi, Hubei Province in 1977. At the age of 27, he Xiaopeng successively founded UC YouTV Company with Liang Jie and Yu Yongfu. At that time, there were few domestic mobile phone software companies. In the initial stage of mobile Internet, UC occupied the first opportunity and covered the mainstream platform, realizing server-side compression of web pages.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of UC, it was chosen by BABA and sold to BABA for about US $4 billion, setting a record for the highest M & An integration in China at that time. He Xiaopeng also served as president of BABA Mobile, chairman of BABA Games, and president of Tudou.

But in his bones, he is still eager to "go out in person" when starting a business.

He Xiaopeng left BABA in 2017, and in August, he announced that he had formally joined XPeng Inc., which he had previously invested in, and became chairman. Besides he Xiaopeng, XPeng Inc. 's angel investors include YY founder Li Xueling, Cheetah Mobile Inc CEO Fu Sheng, Matrix Partners founder Zhang Ying and 58 Group CEO Yao Jinbo.

Entering this industry, his judgment is that smart cars will bring about a change of the times."like the transition from a feature phone to a smartphone, a car needs to have stronger computing, networking and interaction capabilities. It is no longer just a car, it will also be an intelligent carrier of information that can bring you closer to the world. "

At the end of 2018, XPeng Inc. 's first production car, the G3, was officially delivered, which embodies the foundation of he Xiaopeng's vision and is built around AI capabilities, self-driving assistance, remote management and operating systems.

But for the new energy car company, which was founded in 2014, it seems a long time to deliver the first production car in more than four years. NIO Inc., which was founded in the same year, was already listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and the second production model, the ES6, was already on the market. NIO Inc. 's first production model, the NIO ES8, was launched as early as December 2017.

XPeng Inc., who was once a step behind, is now beginning to accelerate.

In April this year, XPeng Inc. launched its second mass production model, XPeng Inc. P7, which is positioned as a pure electric sedan model with a NEDC mileage of 552km~706km and a price range of 229900 yuan to 349900 yuan.

The press conference also changed its previous style, directly marked Tesla, Inc., and was full of "gunpowder".In addition to the models, the friction between the two companies is also escalating.

Two days before the listing of the P7, XPeng Inc. issued a statement saying that after Tesla, Inc. sued his employee Cao Guangzhi, who had jumped to XPeng Inc., it was an "unreasonable statement" to ask XPeng Inc. to release all the autopilot source code. He believes that this is Tesla, Inc. 's "obvious bullying" to a young competitor.

As Tesla, Inc. launched a general attack on the Chinese market, the sales of Model 3 also reached record highs, increasing the pressure on the new forces of domestic car building. He Xiaopeng also forwarded an article called "XPeng Inc. 's decisive moment" on his social platform. Xu Jihan, vice president of XPeng Inc., also said"when doing P7, the strong target is Model 3."

In May this year, XPeng Inc. Zhaoqing Intelligent Factory was approved for production qualification, and officially entered the era of XPeng Inc. 's own car. In July this year, XPeng Inc. P7 officially began full delivery. According to the current delivery data, XPeng Inc. P7 achieved monthly delivery of 1641 units.

New moves are made almost every month, and in July, XPeng Inc. just announced the signing of a C+ round financing agreement, mainly invested by Aspex, Coatue, Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital China, with an investment of nearly $500m.

Two weeks later, XPeng Inc. received a new round of financing of $300m led by BABA.At the same time, the IPO process is speeding up, or these new moves are already preparing for listing.

For new energy car companies, including XPeng Inc., NIO Inc., Weima, ideal, all need a lot of funds to continue to develop. It has been a long time since its establishment, but the profit is far away, and the patience and funds of investors are limited. Listing is undoubtedly a good way to get funds.

Cao he, president of Quanlian Automotive Investment Management (Beijing) Co., Ltd. said in an interview with Future Automobile Daily, "it is impossible for the foreign market to accommodate more than five new car manufacturers. Whoever goes public first will live first. "

This is also the reason why new energy car companies have been listed on the stock market recently.

2 Why do Internet bigwigs love to build cars?

Internet companies' obsession with building cars began in 2014.

This year is even called the first year of car building.NIO Inc. and XPeng Inc. were founded, Jia Yueting began to build cars for his dreams, and then in 2015, Li wanted to set up cars and homes. Shen Hui, former chairman of Volvo China, founded Weimar, and dozens of new car-building forces emerged during this period. Even home appliance giant Gree began to join the car-building camp.

It is not that the industry is easy to start, not only more difficult, requires a larger pool of capital and endurance, nor can you see results as quickly as the Internet, from research and development to mass production is a threshold, profit is more distant.

Before he Xiaopeng decided to join the car-building field, he had a deep chat with his fellow villager Lei Jun. Lei Jun judged that it would take at least five years to "do it," which is 100 times more difficult than starting an Internet business.

But they all devote themselves to the industry without hesitation, and in their view, the more changes are needed, the more opportunities there are, the changes in the automobile industry and the mobile phone industry, the cars of the future will not only be a means of transportation, just as today's mobile phones are not only used for phone calls.

He Xiaopeng mentioned in an interview with the self-media animal building office, "Smart electric vehicle today is equivalent to UC's 2008." I think people who start a business at this stage of time, as long as they do not make big mistakes, as long as they are lucky and have higher execution, they may have one or more of the N enterprises. "

In their view, car building may be a major change that will affect people's lives in the next decade or so, and now is the time to get a head start."I think it was the times that created the heroes, not the heroes. In he Xiaopeng's view, timing and luck often lead to the birth of giants.

And the Internet giants with capital have also begun to invest in new car-building enterprises.Although they will not personally follow up on an industry, they will be worried about missing out on any investment outlet.The same is true from the history of entrepreneurship in recent years, such as thousands of regiments, unmanned shelves, shared bicycles, community group buying …... Behind every founder of the charge, there is a corresponding boss.

Because for them, once the bet is successful, it will not only increase their ecological layout, but also show their cards in the face of competitors at the same level.

In the early days, Xia Heng, chief of the control section of GAC NE Center, visited he Xiaopeng at the UC headquarters for the first time. Under the introduction of he Xiaopeng, Xia Heng also met Li Xueling and Fu Sheng one after another, and later they all became investors in XPeng Inc..

In December 2017, BABA invested in XPeng Inc. and became another giant in the field of new cars after Tencent invested in NIO Inc. and Baidu, Inc. invested in Weima. At this point, BAT's new car camp has stood in line.

"in fact, I didn't expect Ali to invest in XPeng Inc.. "This was the feeling of he Xiaopeng when BABA first invested in XPeng Inc.. He reviewed the process of getting BABA's investment, more than a month before he left office. He originally planned to spend an hour talking about the past and talking about the future, and went to bid farewell to BABA, CEO, Zhang Yong and other senior officials. Unexpectedly, Zhang Yong was very interested in new energy vehicles and talked with he Xiaopeng for another hour. The later story is that BABA participated in XPeng Inc. 's two rounds of financing.

With the development of new energy vehicles in recent years, capital has begun to enter one after another, and began to occupy a certain voice in the industry. At present, there is a "backing" behind these new forces of car building, and the camp of "backing" is getting larger and larger. It is not surprising that dozens of star investment institutions stand behind a company.

Tencent has become NIO Inc. 's second largest shareholder, Meituan Wang Xing's addition before the ideal listing has also made it Li Auto Inc. 's second largest shareholder, and Baidu, Inc. has also injected capital into Weima many times.

After XPeng Inc. this round of financing, BABA also completed the increase in the field of new energy vehicles.

3 A new battlefield for the giants

For the new car manufacturers who are in it, the war between them has not really begun.

Not long ago, he Xiaopeng posted a photo with Li Bin and Li Xiang on Weibo Corp. The founders of these three representative enterprises got together with the article "three bitterness, thinking hard to change …"... "

In the same period of money-burning and loss-making operation, facing the same confusion and bottleneck, huddling together to keep warm has set up the current state, and there is no lack of mutual cooperation in the past even among new car-building enterprises.At a time when the industry is facing difficulties, although they are competitors, traditional cars are their common enemy at this time.

This is also the highlight of the Internet war, which seems to be the founders of several companies, but the giants behind the scenes have their own considerations.

For the giants, car building has become a new battlefield for them to lay out their own ecology and carry more offline scenes.

Take Dong Mingzhu's process of borrowing money to invest in Yinlong. Dong Mingzhu once mentioned that by investing in Yinlong, Gree can "build bridges" to expand Gree's industry:

On the one hand, to make Gree cut into the automotive mold market, many automobile companies began to seek Gree to help open the mold; on the other hand, Gree now makes a drive motor, which is an important part used in cars. Through the cooperation with Yinlong, let the drive motor officially enter the automobile assembly; in additionThrough Yinlong, Gree can set foot in the automotive air-conditioning industry that has failed many times before and become an important supplier of automotive air-conditioning in China.

Lei Jun's investment in XIAOMI is also a consideration of XIAOMI's current situation. XIAOMI began to make money in IoT and make money in content ecology, and whether it is IoT or AIot advocated by XIAOMI, car, as a mobile family and mobile terminal, is one of the important scenes.

So XIAOMI invested not only in NIO Inc. but also in XPeng Inc..

In November last year, XPeng Inc. completed round C financing, received US $400m from XIAOMI Group and he Xiaopeng, successfully introduced XIAOMI Group, a new strategic investment partner, and cooperated with XIAOMI Group in smartphone and smart car interoperability.

Lei Jun is making a larger layout for XIAOMI's future ecology, through the car side to get through the AIot ecology, to consolidate his advantage in the hardware side.

For the giants with capital, they are not willing to bet on just one company.In addition to investing in XPeng Inc., BABA also cooperated with SAIC to build Internet cars, joined the zebra system and Roewe X5, and reaped certain sales.

The competition for scenarios and the Internet of things operating system is the next focus of the giants in this new battlefield.But at present, under the complicated investment relationship, the clear shot and hidden arrow of the car-building enterprises and the bosses behind the scenes are still waiting for a trigger opportunity.

The surviving new forces of car building have begun to seek listing one after another. On July 26th, according to Bloomberg, a person familiar with the matter said that Weimar is working with a finance company, plans to land on the Kechuang board as soon as this year, and is seeking an offer with a 30 billion listing valuation.

At present, domestic new energy car companies are far from life-and-death stage, but listing is not the end, but indicates the beginning of a new round of war.