(Yicai) April 17 -- GAC Group’s new energy vehicle brand Qiji Automobile is expecting to complete a new round of financing within two months and will consider an initial public offering in due course, Yicai learned from an insider at the auto startup.

GAC Group and other partners jointly formed Qiji Auto with investment of CNY125 million (USD17.3 million) in December last year, aiming to produce new energy light commercial vehicles such as smart minibuses and light trucks in the next three years. Europe will be the first export destination, according to the company’s plan.

Qiji Auto has just launched a new model and mass production is expected to start in October this year.

China produced 997,000 commercial vehicles and sold over 1 million units from January to March, up 5.1 percent and 10.1 percent, respectively, from a year ago, per statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The country’s commercial vehicle market is likely to grow moderately by 4 percent to 5 percent this year, according to Xu Changming, senior economist at the State Information Center.

Editor: Tom Litting