(Yicai Global) March 7 -- WM Motor, a Chinese electric car startup that is about to go public via a backdoor listing, is sparing no efforts in reopening its outlets after a district in Shanghai warned its residents against buying such cars.

The new energy vehicle manufacturer has been successively resuming the normal operation of more than 100 sales outlets nationwide in order to meet customers’ needs for car purchasing and after-sales services, the Shanghai-based firm said in a statement on Weibo today.

WM Motor has communicated and coordinated with its divisions in charge of production and sales, as well as its delivery service providers, to urgently allocate relevant parts to satisfy consumer demand as soon as possible. The inconvenience that some after-sales customers reported was caused by earlier tensions in WM Motor's supply chain, it added.

In the eastern city's Qingpu district, a committee that aims to safeguard consumers’ rights and interests said on Feb. 28 that since October 2022 the group has received complaints from almost 90 customers of the car firm, claiming the brand's outlets are not operating normally to take care of maintenance and repair.

WM Motor has already infringed on consumers’ legitimate rights and interests and the complaints were not dealt with properly, the committee said, adding that potential clients should be cautious about buying cars from the company.

Founded in 2015, WM Motor used to be one of China's brightest electric vehicle startups. In 2019, its sales volume exceeded 10,000 units. But rivals including Nio and Xpeng Motor gained more traction as WM Motor only sold 29,450 units last year, a decline of 33 percent from 2021, per data from the China Passenger Car Association.

The troubled company is eyeing an equity sale. In January, WM Motor said it will go public in Hong Kong via a subsidiary’s reverse merger with the listed arm of Apollo Future Mobility Group. The financing could improve the firm's balance sheet as WM Motor's cumulative losses tallied CNY17.4 billion (USD2.5 billion) from 2019 to 2021, according to data it disclosed earlier.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi