(Yicai Global) July 13 -- Meituan Dianping-backed Li Auto is looking to raise USD100 million in its upcoming initial public offering on the Nasdaq as the second Chinese new energy vehicle maker to ever go public in the States after Nio whose stock price has been surging this month.

Li Auto, which has already delivered more than 10,000 Li One vehicles, submitted its prospectus with the Securities and Exchanges Commission on July 10. But it didn't disclose its scale of issuance nor pricing details.

Founded in April 2015, the Beijing-based firm launched its first model, a six-seater sport utility vehicle, last November.

In the past two years, China's auto sales downturn and reduced subsidies have caused competition among manufacturers to further intensify. But some of the popular US-listed sellers, such as Tesla and Nio, have seen their stock prices surge in the past few months. Nio, which went public in September 2018, has had its shares [NYSE: NIO] nearly double in price this month.

At this point, Li Auto is still burning through money. The company widened its net loss last year to CNY1.9 billion (USD265.8 million) from the previous year's CNY1.1 billion. Its revenue was CNY284.4 million (USD40.2 million) in 2019.

Currently, founder Li Xiang has a quarter of Li Auto's shares with more than 70 percent of the voting rights. Inspired Elite Investments, a subsidiary of Meituan Dianping, holds 15 percent of the equity with almost 6 percent of the voting power. The Beijing-based takeout and ride-hailing giant's Chief Executive Wang Xing has a nearly 9 percent stake.

Editor: Emmi Laine