(Yicai Global) Jan. 27 -- Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology has had its application to list abroad approved by China’s regulators, indicating that the electric car maker no longer intends to go public on the mainland as it had previously stated but will seek an overseas market with a lower entry threshold.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission has accepted Leapmotor’s application for an offshore initial public offering, the commission said yesterday.

While the destination bourse has not been declared, Bloomberg reported in October last year that the Hangzhou-based company is mulling a Hong Kong IPO that could raise as much as USD1 billion.

Leapmotor intends to go public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Nasdaq-style Star Market by early 2022, co-founder and President Wu Baojun said in November 2020. At the time it was also stated that Leapmotor will be one of the top three NEV startups in China by next year and have a 10 percent market share by 2025.

It has some way to go to materialize these goals. The firm currently ranks sixth in China after Nio, Xpeng Motors, Li Auto, Hozon Auto and WM Motor Technology. It delivered 43,000 vehicles last year, not even half of its target of 48,000 units for the second half. Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto had sales of around 100,000 units each.

Leapmotor has three electric car models on the market, the sports utility vehicle C11, the minicar T03 and the sport sedan S01, which sell for prices between CNY68,900 (USD10,855) and CNY199,800 (USD31,480).

Leapmotor has raised over CNY12 billion (USD1.9 billion) in seven fundraising rounds, The Paper reported today. The latest was a pre-IPO round in August last year that secured CNY4.5 billion.

Editor: Kim Taylor