New York Chinese electric vehicle startup Iconiq Motors is considering going public in the United States through a merger with a blank-check firm that would value the combined group at around $4 billion, Bloomberg reported. Iconiq could become publicly traded as soon as the end of this year, adding that discussions were at an early stage and had no guarantee of success. Iconiq Motors, which partners with auto supplier Magna Steyr and Microsoft Corp, was founded in 2016 by Chinese entrepreneur Alan Wu and has offices in Tianjin, Shanghai, and Dubai. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Several other prominent electric vehicle players have also merged with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to go public, such as Lucid Group, Fisker and Nikola. Meanwhile, The latest electric vehicle startup to cash in on a new wave of hype and investment in the space is Li Auto, a five-year-old Chinese company that started trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday after raising $1.1 billion in an initial public offering. It’s the second Chinese EV startup to become a publicly traded company in the United States, following Nio’s 2018 IPO and subsequent listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Another, XPeng, will reportedly be next.—AN
