(Yicai) May 22 -- Shares of Xpeng Motors climbed after the Chinese new energy vehicle startup said its net loss narrowed 52 percent and its deliveries reached a new record in the first quarter of the year.

Xpeng [HKG: 9868] was trading up 5.8 percent at HKD82.05 (USD10.48) as of 10.35 a.m. in Hong Kong today, after earlier gaining as much as 10.2 percent. Its New York-listed stock [NYSE: XPEN] surged 13 percent to USD22.25 yesterday.

Net loss was CNY660 million (USD91.7 million) in the three months ended March 31, compared with CNY1.4 billion (USD190.4 million) a year earlier, according to the Guangzhou-based company's latest earnings report released yesterday. Revenue soared 142 percent to CNY15.8 billion (USD2.2 billion).

Xpeng delivered 94,008 vehicles in the first quarter, up 331 percent from the same period last year, to achieve a new quarterly record. In April, deliveries totaled 35,045 units.

"Despite seasonality for auto sales, our quarterly deliveries hit a new historical high, making us the top-selling automaker among emerging electric vehicle companies," said He Xiaopeng, Xpeng's chairman and chief executive officer. "We remain committed to our steadfast long-term growth strategy and continue to launch more blockbuster products."

In the first quarter, Xpeng's overseas deliveries expanded by more than 31,700 units from a year earlier, He said during the earnings conference call. The company opened over 40 new stores abroad, entering key markets, such as the United Kingdom in Europe and Indonesia in Southeast Asia, he added.

"We anticipate that our overseas business will experience rapid growth over the next three years, becoming a significant contributor to our sales and profit increase," He predicted.

For the second quarter, Xpeng expects its revenue to rise 116 percent to 131 percent to between CNY17.5 billion and CNY18.7 billion from a year earlier. Its deliveries will likely jump 238 percent to 258 percent to between 102,000 and 108,000 units.

"We'll finalize annual upgrades or configuration improvements for five models, with two brand new major models set to begin deliveries in the third quarter," He noted. "I believe we'll not only meet our goal of more than doubling sales growth this year, but we'll achieve profitability in the fourth quarter and generate substantial free cash flow for the entire year."

With enhanced self-sustaining capabilities, Xpeng will drive ongoing breakthroughs in artificial intelligence technology and product development, pursuing integrated innovations across fields, including assisted driving, smart cabins, chips, embodied intelligent robots, and enterprise productivity tools, according to He.

"Our investments in AI vehicles also provide distinct advantages in humanoid robot research and development in China's robotics industry," He said, adding that humanoid robots will be Xpeng's third growth curve.

According to a previously released plan, Xpeng aims to release humanoid robots for industrial and commercial applications next year and evolve rapidly through data from mass production scenarios.

Xpeng will soon release the fifth-generation model of its Iron humanoid robot, powered by Turning AI chips. The fourth-generation model appeared at the 21st Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition last month.

"Xpeng's robot models will surpass traditional industry technological approaches, such as small reinforcement learning models and fragmented systems, by utilizing the vision-language-action architecture of our physical world foundation model and taking advantage of our existing cloud AI infrastructure to improve robotic intelligence," He noted.

Editor: Futura Costaglione