By Michael Elkins
According to Chinese media, He Xiaopeng, founder and CEO of Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng (NYSE:XPEV), purchased 2.2 million shares of the company's American shares from the market.
He paid almost US$30 million for the shares on the open market, on September 23rd, based on the average price of $13.58 - disclosed in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Sunday. The automaker went public in New York in August 2020 and in Hong Kong in July 2021.
The company has seen its shares fall more than 60% since late June. However, XPeng's new SUV launch has boosted confidence for future profitability after months of pressure.
“Xpeng’s current sales have hit a bottleneck, and it is difficult to further increase its sales due to the increase in competitors,” an analyst at Ping An Securities wrote in a report on Friday. Due to lower car prices, its profitability was also weaker than domestic competitors Nio (NYSE:NIO) and Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI), he added.
The company is hoping its new G9 SUV will strengthen sales and enhance overall competitiveness. The electric SUV launched in China on Tuesday and is due for customer delivery in October. XPeng is calling it “the world’s fastest-charging mass-production SUV, [boasting] the industry’s first full-scenario Advanced Driver Assistance System”.
The carmaker expects to ship 10,000 units per month of the premium smart SUV. At the online launch ceremony last week, He Xiaopeng said he was confident that the G9, priced between 309,900 yuan (US$43,474) and 469,900 yuan, could outsell Audi’s Q5 SUV which runs on an internal combustion engine.
The G9 is expected to boost XPeng’s sales and profitability, which in turn will give a lift to its stock price, according to the Ping An Securities report.
Shares of XPEV are up 4.16% in pre-market trading Monday.