Chinese electric car company Xpeng Motors is planning to expand beyond its home country, with an aim to sell half of its vehicles in international markets. The company's chairman and vice president, Brian Gu, said Wednesday that they are now focusing on grabbing global opportunities as part of their new strategy.
Gu said the company is planning to balance its deliveries by supplying half of its production capacity to China, with the other half going to other countries. Gu did detail a timeline for achieving their goals, mentioning that it is what they are aiming for "in the long run."
The announcement comes just days after the company released its better-than-expected third-quarter results. Xpeng reported revenue of $887.7 million for the quarter, beating analysts' expectations.
Xpeng Motors' share price surged by more than 8% overnight following the release of its latest quarterly earnings report.
The strategy is similar to what Tesla, the current leader in the EV industry, is doing. The U.S.-based company said during their third-quarter earnings reports that it supplies about 46.6% of its vehicles in its home market, while the rest are going to other markets.
In its report, Tesla said that China currently accounts for about 22.6% of its total sales, which is a big jump from the figure it reported a year earlier. Tesla recently built a factory in Shanghai to better meet the growing demand for its products in China.
Gu said Xpeng would be doing the same by making significant investments in international markets within the next few years. Gu said the company plans to first expand into European markets, particularly in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Demark.
Late last year, the company had begun shipping cars to Norway. Other Chinese electric car manufacturers also followed suit after the country announced new government incentives to support the adoption of electric cars. Chinese electric car company recently opened a flagship store in Oslo.
Warren Buffet-backed Chinese EV company BYD also began shipping its products to Norway this summer. The company previously announced that it plans to deliver up to 1,500 units to the county by the end of the year.
Earlier in the month, Xpeng said that since its start six years ago, it had sold over 100,000 electric vehicles. The G3 SUV, the company's first commercially available car, was released in December 2018. Gu said their P7 sedan, which began sales last summer, has proven to be significantly more popular, accounting for more than 77% of its deliveries.
In October, Xpeng began shipping its third electric vehicle, the P5 sedan. Last week, the start-up unveiled the G9, an electric SUV aimed at both foreign and Chinese markets.
