(Yicai Global) May 11 -- Shares in Li Auto surged as much as 17.3 percent today after the Chinese electric vehicle startup posted a profit in the first quarter for the first time and said that it expects revenue to triple in the three months ending June 30.

Li Auto’s share price [HKG:2015] was trading up 14.7 percent at HKD113.60 (USD14.50) as of 2.10 p.m. China time. Earlier in the day it hit HKD116.30. And in the US, its New York-traded stock [NASDAQ:LI] finished the day up 13.9 percent at USD28.22 yesterday.

Li Auto logged a three-and-a-half-fold leap in net profit in the three months ended March 31 from the previous quarter to CNY933.8 million (USD134.7 million), a huge improvement on the losses of CNY10.9 million (USD1.6 million) it incurred the same time last year, according to the firm’s latest financial report released yesterday. Revenue jumped 96.5 percent to CNY18.8 billion (USD2.7 billion), a new quarterly high.

And the outlook is bright. Revenue this quarter is likely to as much as triple from a year ago to CNY25.9 billion (USD3.7 billion), the carmaker said. It expects sales to increase 182.4 percent over the period to 81,000 EVs.

The firm’s NEV sales soared more than six-fold in April from a year earlier to 25,681 units. The Beijing-based company shipped 78,265 autos in the first four months.

Li Auto will strive to deliver 30,000 units next month, founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Li Xiang said at the earnings call. "We don't have any plans to offer discounts because we have set our long-term sales and product targets," he added.

Li Auto will release its first all-electric car in the fourth quarter, to add to its fleet of hybrid gas-electric range-extended EVs, Li said at the Shanghai Auto Show last month.

Editor: Kim Taylor