HONG KONG/BEIJING - Last year, Wei Qing and his private equity investment team visited more than 20 Chinese electric vehicle manufacturing startups.
Numerous setbacks plaguing Tesla Inc in its quest for sustained profitability as well as a dramatic slide in sales and problems with some cars at Chinese startup Nio Inc have also put investors on their guard. “It is challenging,” said the banker who began working on one fundraising this year. “If you can get a meeting with investors, you can always tell a story, but some don’t even reply to your requests for a meeting.”Eager to curb smog and jump-start its own auto industry, China has said it wants so-called new energy vehicles - which also include hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell cars - to account for a fifth of auto sales by 2025 compared with 5% now.
That has led to sharp slowdown as vehicle prices rise. Sales of NEVs in May rose just 1.8% from a year earlier compared with 18.1% in April, and 62% growth for 2018. Others include Leap Motor, backed by state-owned Shanghai Electric Group Corp and Sequoia Capital China, which is seeking $372 million as well as CHJ Automotive, founded by serial entrepreneur Li Xiang, which wants to raise as much as $500 million.