Asian Tech Press (Oct 28) -- Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. (GAC Group)'s electric vehicle brand Aion plans to file for a Shanghai IPO in the second quarter of 2023, sources said.

Aion's business entity, GAC Aion, plans to file for an initial public offering (IPO) with securities regulators in the second quarter of next year, in an effort to become the first stock on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Science and Technology Innovation Board (Shanghai Star Market) for new energy vehicles.

GAC Group announced on October 20 that its subsidiary GAC Aion has completed its Series A financing. According to the statement, GAC Aion introduced a total of 53 strategic investors in this Series A financing round, raising a total of 18.294 billion yuan ($2.53 billion), representing 17.72% equity.

GAC said that after this round of financing, GAC Aion's valuation reached 103.239 billion yuan ($14.27 billion), a figure that is already more than twice the market value of XPeng Inc (XPEV:New York), one of its Chinese rivals.

As the round of funding closed, GAC's EV brand Aion appears to be one step closer to an IPO.

Qinghong Zeng, Chairman of GAC Group, disclosed at an earnings presentation in late March this year that Aion was aiming to launch an initial public offering in 2023.

Founded in July 2017, GAC Aion is the most important operating entity of GAC Group's new energy vehicle business. In November 2020, Aion formally became independent from the auto group's passenger vehicle segment.

GAC Aion's sales have been rising year by year since the launch of its first model Aion S in April 2019.

In the first three quarters of this year, the company sold 182,300 units, more than the combined sales of 2021 and 2020, placing it in the top five among Chinese new energy vehicle companies and accounting for 4.2% of the overall new energy vehicle market.