Latest news with #SeresGroup
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Automotive
- South China Morning Post
After CATL's IPO spark, China's EV leaders bank on Hong Kong for growth funds
More than a dozen smart mobility companies from mainland China are making a beeline to raise funds in Hong Kong, capitalising on the growing appetite among global investors for the country's unpolished industrial gems. Advertisement The prospective initial public offerings (IPOs) from electric vehicle (EV) assemblers like Chery Automobile and Seres Group to autonomous driving technology providers such as are expected to enhance China's leading automotive technologies on the global stage, bankers and analysts said. 'They gravitate to Hong Kong where international investors are actively hunting for China's next industry leaders, those with the potential to grab a considerable share of the global market,' said Ding Haifeng, a consultant at Integrity, a Shanghai-based financial advisory firm. Successful IPOs 'would be an endorsement of Chinese EV makers and supply-chain vendors', he added. 03:30 Global carmakers cede world's largest auto show to Chinese EVs Global carmakers cede world's largest auto show to Chinese EVs Some of the candidates could launch jumbo deals, with proceeds exceeding US$1 billion each, Ding added, which could further strengthen Hong Kong's leading position as the world's busiest venue for IPOs this year. Advertisement
Bloomberg
19-05-2025
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
China's Luxury Car Brand That's Come From Behind to Overtake BMW
In under four years, Seres Group Co., a small Chinese automaker once best known for its 30,000 yuan ($4,200) minivans, has beaten luxury legacy names like BMW and Mercedes to become the nation's hottest high-end car seller. Formerly called DFSK Motor, Seres partnered with telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. back in 2021 to launch the Aito brand of premium electric and hybrid sport utility vehicles. Since then, Seres has had a dizzying rise. Sales tripled in three years to around 427,000 vehicles in 2024, while the company's Shanghai-listed stock is up 120%.
South China Morning Post
28-04-2025
- Automotive
- South China Morning Post
Seres, Huawei's carmaking partner, plans Hong Kong listing to fund global expansion
Seres Group , the carmaking partner of Huawei Technologies, has submitted an application to list its shares in Hong Kong. Advertisement The Chongqing-based company, which builds Aito-branded intelligent electric vehicles (EVs), said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday that it would use the proceeds from the share sale to diversify its sales channels, bolster deliveries to overseas customers, expand its charging network and enhance global brand awareness. The company did not specify the amount it plans to raise. The Shanghai-listed company was valued at 208 billion yuan (US$28.5 billion) on Monday after its shares slid 1.4 per cent to 127.25 yuan. Seres will be the latest mainland Chinese EV company to tap the Hong Kong market as competition in the domestic market intensifies. 'In the future, we will probably face more new rivals in the EV market, and competition is set to get fiercer,' it said. Seres and Huawei jointly produce Aito-branded electric vehicles. Photo: Shutterstock Supported by Huawei's autonomous driving and digital cockpit technologies, Aito has reported surging deliveries over the past three years. In 2024, the company delivered 387,100 vehicles to mainland customers, up 268 per cent from a year earlier. Advertisement
Nikkei Asia
24-04-2025
- Automotive
- Nikkei Asia
Chinese EV makers pivot to safety after ban on 'exaggerated' ads
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG -- Chinese auto executives are touting safety features during the country's premier auto show this week, after a high-profile crash involving assisted driving technology prompted regulators to clamp down on what they deemed "exaggerated" advertising. Seres Group, which sells electric vehicles under the Aito brand, dubbed its Auto Shanghai news conference on Wednesday an "intelligent safety launch event."
New York Times
28-02-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
Why a Chinese Gadget Company Can Make an Electric Car and Apple Can't
After nearly a decade of trying, Apple finally gave up its effort to produce an electric car last year, canceling a project that soaked up $10 billion. But last year in China, the electronics maker Xiaomi launched its first electric car after just three years of development. The company delivered 135,000 vehicles in 2024, and has vowed to deliver double that number this year. Xiaomi's ability to succeed where Apple could not shows just how thoroughly China has come to dominate the supply chain for electric vehicles. Chinese companies have mastered electric vehicle manufacturing. By tapping that infrastructure, Xiaomi was able to get components quickly and cheaply. More Chinese electric vehicle companies — including Leapmotor, Li Auto and Seres Group — are starting to turn a profit after burning cash for years in their intense competition for the world's largest auto market. And Xiaomi is not the only Chinese consumer electronics company that has branched out to electric vehicles. The telecommunications giant Huawei, which the U.S. government has targeted with sanctions and legal action for years, is making autonomous driving software. Huawei has partnered with multiple Chinese automakers, including Seres Group and the state-owned firms SAIC Motor, BAIC and Chery. Xiaomi has long been compared to Apple. It made bets that its rivals rushed to imitate, like selling its low-cost, high-design phones mainly online. Its chief executive, Lei Jun, even dressed like the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in jeans and a black shirt, for Xiaomi's first phone launch in 2011. Xiaomi's first electric car was brought out last March: the SU7, a four-door sedan with artificial intelligence features that can help with parking, play movies for passengers and program Xiaomi home appliances from the road. Mr. Lei said it looks like a Porsche. But at $30,000, it's a quarter of the price. Xiaomi makes all kinds of electronics, from robot vacuum cleaners to air-conditioners, which are connected through its operating system and controlled in its app. The SU7 is, in some ways, just another gadget. It can use data collected from other devices about a driver's daily routine to determine the best time to charge the car's batteries. 'Xiaomi has really started infiltrating your home,' said Gary Ng, an economist with Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking. 'Everything is linked together, and this is something other companies couldn't do.' While the SU7 earned Xiaomi just a fraction of the sales of China's top electric vehicle makers, it puts Xiaomi among the Chinese companies that are dealing a major blow to foreign automakers' long command over China's market for premium cars. In the year since the SU7 went on sale, Porsche deliveries in China were down nearly 30 percent. On Thursday night in Beijing, Xiaomi released a high-end version, the SU7 Ultra, alongside a premium version of its latest smartphone. The company staged a flashy teaser for the car by racing a prototype around Germany's Nürburgring racetrack, where Xiaomi said it set a record for 'fastest four-door sedan.' Xiaomi also plans to release a sport utility vehicle, the YU7, this year, according to regulatory filings in China. Chinese electric vehicle companies have benefited from billions of dollars in government support, which has helped them gain control of the supply chain down to the very minerals inside the car batteries. This early edge helped two Chinese companies, BYD and Contemporary Amperex Technology Company — known as CATL and added to the Pentagon's list of Chinese military companies in January — become the biggest electric battery makers in the world. Xiaomi used this supply chain to its advantage. Its cars contain batteries from BYD and CATL. It was able to quickly start production by taking over an existing factory from Beijing Auto Group. Construction workers in Beijing are working around the clock on a second factory. All this manufacturing capacity helps Chinese electric vehicle firms move from development to production in far less time than traditional automakers in China, enabling them to bring new models to market quickly and focus on making software that they can continually update, said Stephen W. Dyer, head of Asia Automotive at AlixPartners, a consultancy. Intense competition at home has pushed many Chinese carmakers to flood the global auto market with affordable electric cars. Last year, BYD sold more than four million new cars worldwide. It is just a matter of time before Xiaomi cars are on the road outside of China, said Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association. Xiaomi's popularity as a maker of all kinds of consumer electronics gave it a deep well of knowledge about Chinese consumer preferences. On the first day SU7s were delivered, buyers could go to Xiaomi's app store and get accessories to trick out the cars, like analog dashboard clocks and a row of physical switches that attach to a touch-screen panel. 'The strength of the brand puts Xiaomi ahead of a lot of their competitors,' said Tu Le, a managing director of the consultancy Sino Auto Insights. 'That's what it takes to sell cars globally, because it's not just a consumer product, it's an emotional product.'
