Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturer NIO Inc. has filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company said in a filing on Monday that it’s looking to raise as much as $1.8 billion in the initial public offering.
An application for the IPO has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and NIO plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “NIO,” according to Reuters.
NIO began making deliveries in June of its first electric car, the ES8. In the first half of 2018, NIO reported less than $7 million in revenue and net loss of $503 million. The automaker said that it had delivered 481 ES8 electric SUVs through July and had “unfulfilled reservations” for more than 17,000 electric vehicles.
With 220 miles of range, fast charging that will recharge the battery entirely in one hour, battery pack swapping capabilities for thee-minute refueling and more, the NIO ES8, which starts at 448,000 Chinese yuan (about $68,000) before subsidies, is half the starting price of Tesla’s 836,000 yuan (about $126,500) Model X in China.
NIO said in its filing it aims to “launch a new model every year in the near future,” including the five-seater ES6 in 2018, with deliveries slated for the first half of 2019.
NIO, founded in 2014, already has some deep-pocketed investors, including Chinese tech companies Tencent and Baidu, and US venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.
Currently, NIO has more than 6,000 employees from nearly 40 countries and by the end of 2018 it will have city operations and services teams in 169 cities throughout China.
Under the NIO Performance Program brand, the NIO Formula E Team secured the inaugural FIA Formula E Drivers’ Championship title in 2015. In 2016, the company unveiled the fastest electric car in the world, the EP9, which went on to set the lap record for an electric vehicle at the Nürburgring Nordschleife and three other world-renowned circuits. In 2017, the EP9 set a new world speed record for an autonomous vehicle at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
In the same year NIO also unveiled its vision car EVE and officially launched its first road production vehicle, the NIO ES8, a seven-seater high performance electric SUV.
