In this undated file photo, a visitor passes by a dealership of Xpeng Motors in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. (LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

New York-traded electric-vehicle maker Xpeng Inc has received the green light from the Hong Kong stock exchange to list in the city, the latest homecoming share sale by a Chinese company.

The company submitted an updated listing document on Wednesday, indicating it has won the bourse’s approval. The filing, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report, didn’t specify Xpeng’s fundraising size. The EV maker could raise as much as US$2 billion in Hong Kong as soon as this year, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

Xpeng American depositary receipts climbed 5.3 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Unlike the other homecoming listings, however, Xpeng’s is not a secondary listing but a dual primary one. That is because Xpeng, which only went public in New York last year, doesn’t have the two-year listing track record required for it to merit a secondary listing in the HKSAR

A listing by Xpeng would end a brief hiatus in such share sales by US-listed mainland's firms with online travel firm Trip.com Ltd the last, raising about US$1.25 billion in the HKSAR in April. Many US-traded mainland's companies have flocked to the Asian financial hub since it eased rules in 2018 to allow the likes of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and gaming giant NetEase Inc to list.

Unlike the other homecoming listings, however, Xpeng’s isn’t a secondary listing – which would have exempted it from some of the Asian hub’s listing rules – but a dual primary one. That is because Xpeng, which only went public in New York last year, doesn’t have the two-year listing track record required for it to merit a secondary listing in the HKSAR. It’s set to be the biggest dual primary listing in the HKSAR since biotech drugmaker BeiGene Ltd raised US$903 million in the city almost three years ago.

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Xpeng’s US presence has already helped the EV maker raise funds. After raising US$1.72 billion in its August IPO in New York it fetched another US$2.5 billion from investors by placing stock in December.

EV stocks

That said, Xpeng will be coming to a market less enamored of EV makers. After a blistering rally in 2020, electric car-makers have seen their shares decline this year amid increasing competition from legacy automakers, the global semiconductor shortage and an increasing wariness by investors about holding onto riskier assets.

Xpeng’s stock surged 381 percent from its IPO price to a high of US$72.17 in November, but has since fallen about 44 percent, giving the Guangzhou-based company a market capitalization of around US$32 billion.

The carmaker also faces intense competition at home. Rival mainland's EV companies Nio Inc and Li Auto Inc – both traded in the US – are also planning listings in the HKSAR, Bloomberg News has reported. The trio compete in an increasingly crowded market on the mainland – the world’s largest for electric-vehicles – as tech giants, traditional automakers and startups muscle into the sector.

READ MORE: Xpeng Motors kicks off production at its own plant in Guangdong

Xpeng has yet to turn a profit and has pledged to break even by late 2023 or 2024. Its revenues have been increasing, however, rising to 2.95 billion yuan in the first quarter and its deliveries grew 483 percent in May compared to the previous year.