In drei und einer halben Jahren erzielte der "neue Kraftfahrzeughersteller" aus dem Baidu-Konzern einen Umsatz von 3,9 Milliarden Yuan, aber einen Verlust von 1,7 Milliarden Yuan. Er kämpft sich blutig in die Hongkonger Börse vor.

Another company in the field of autonomous truck driving is aiming for a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This time, it's a company associated with Baidu.

On November 6th, Deepway Technology Co., Ltd. (Deepway) submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The joint sponsors are China International Capital Corporation and China Merchants Bank International.

Founded in 2020, Deepway is a technology company focusing on new - energy trucks and intelligent solutions for road freight. To date, it has raised a total of 1.96 billion yuan in capital. Behind the company are investors such as Baidu, Shiqiao Group, SoftBank China, Weiqiao, and the state - owned assets of Hefei.

Deepway has submitted a listing application

The listing application shows that the majority of Deepway's revenue comes from the sales of new - energy trucks. From the first delivery of a new - energy truck in 2023 to June 30th, 2025, Deepway has delivered a total of approximately 6,400 new - energy trucks to 311 customers. In the first half of 2025, Deepway delivered 2,873 new - energy trucks and has approximately 1,400 orders in the order book.

In parallel with the increase in deliveries, Deepway's revenue also rises. In 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025, DeepWay's revenue was 426 million yuan, 1.969 billion yuan, and 1.506 billion yuan respectively.

Nevertheless, DeepWay is still in the red. In the first half of 2025, the loss amounted to 371 million yuan, an increase of approximately 21.1% compared to the same period of the previous year.

By submitting the application, Deepway, a new company in the truck field, is accelerating its path to the stock market and has a chance to become the first listed provider of intelligent truck driving functions on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Entering a trillion - dollar market with a "two - stage" strategy to solve problems

Wan Jun, the founder and CEO of DeepWay, is an experienced entrepreneur. In 2012, he founded the Shiqiao Group, a large long - distance road logistics service provider and one of the largest truck lenders in China.

Thanks to his previous work experience, Wan Jun knows the logistics industry very well. He once publicly stated: Industry employees are working almost at their limit but still don't earn much money. The reason is that fuel costs account for the largest proportion, with gasoline prices accounting for 40%; labor costs closely follow in second place, with the salary rate being 20% - 30%.

In his vision, diesel should first be replaced by electricity to reduce fuel costs, and then intelligent driving technology should partially replace drivers to reduce labor costs. Ultimately, the cost structure should be changed so that vehicle owners can make money.

The global road freight market has a huge volume

DeepWay's products are also based on this philosophy.

The listing application mentions that according to the data from CIC, the global road freight market has a huge volume. In 2024, it already reached 3.9 trillion US dollars. However, this industry has long been hampered by three problems: high carbon dioxide emissions, high overall costs, and safety risks.

DeepWay is committed to solving these problems with electromobility and intelligence. The point of attack is long - distance road transport, which accounts for over 50% of the transport capacity in the road freight system.

Specifically, DeepWay is implementing a "two - stage" strategy.

In the first phase, DeepWay offers solutions for new - energy trucks with a new design concept. It re - defines products and technologies outside the framework of traditional diesel trucks to better optimize software, hardware, and components so that its products can be efficiently and cost - effectively adapted to the requirements of electromobility and intelligence.

In the second phase, based on the large - scale deployment and operation of new - energy trucks, DeepWay aims to further improve the efficiency of the entire road freight industry through intelligent management and transportation.

In DeepWay's view, intelligence is an important core technology for the transformation of intelligent freight. Therefore, it has developed a series of intelligent solutions such as Tianji·Suixing, Tianji·Yanxing, and Tianji·Duxing.

Among them, Tianji·Suixing is an L2 combined assistance system for driver assistance, which offers functions such as forward collision warning, lane departure warning, automatic emergency braking, automatic comfortable braking, predictive comfortable braking, adaptive cruise control, predictive cruise control, intelligent driving assistance, intelligent vehicle platooning, lane departure prevention, and intelligent energy - saving warning.

The new vehicle models DeepWay Xingchen 2 and DeepWay Xingtu are already equipped with Tianji·Suixing as standard. As of June 30th, 2025, over 2,000 vehicles with the Tianji·Suixing system have been delivered.

The intelligent vehicle platooning system Tianji·Yanxing enables the "human - led lead vehicle and unmanned following vehicle" model, which is suitable for the large - scale transportation of bulk goods on fixed routes such as ports, mines, and point - to - point routes. Currently, DeepWay has completed the development and validation of core functions and conducted user adaptation tests.

Tianji·Duxing is an intelligent autonomous vehicle system that is continuously being tested. It has already obtained test approvals in cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Hefei and is routinely tested on the Jingjintang Expressway and the roads of Hefei.

In addition, DeepWay has also developed an intelligent operation solution called DeepWay·Tianshu. This solution includes a vehicle network system with multi - dimensional vehicle control and mass data processing capabilities and then builds an intelligent cockpit for the logistics industry and a vehicle fleet management platform with intelligent assistance functions.

Deepway solutions

Based on this series of products, Deepway has gained a certain market share. Its customers are mainly logistics companies, port operators, and battery rental companies.

According to the data from CIC Deepway ranks tenth in the global new - energy truck market in terms of sales volume in 2024 and has a market share of 2.7%; in terms of sales volume in 2024, Deepway ranks first in the global market for re - defined new - energy trucks.

Revenue growth without profit growth, there are multiple risks

Naturally, the more vehicles are sold, the more money is earned.

The listing application shows that Deepway's revenue in 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025 was 0, 426 million yuan, 1.969 billion yuan, and 1.506 billion yuan respectively.

Deepway's financial situation

Looking at the revenue structure, the sales revenue of new - energy trucks accounts for the largest part of the revenue. In 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025, the proportion was over 99%, and the proportion of component sales is less than 1%. The intelligent freight solutions are offered for free and do not contribute to the revenue yet.

In terms of research and development expenses, DeepWay is also increasing year by year. The research and development expenses in 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025 were 231 million yuan, 352 million yuan, 365 million yuan, and 179 million yuan respectively.

The profit margin shows an increasing trend. In 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025, DeepWay's profit margin was 0.4%, 0.5%, and 2.9% respectively.

However, like many startup companies, Deepway also has many problems.

Firstly, it is still far from making a profit.

In parallel with the increase in revenue, Deepway's losses also increase. The losses in the same period were 267 million yuan, 389 million yuan, 675 million yuan, and 371 million yuan. Over three and a half years, the cumulative loss amounted to 1.702 billion yuan, representing a situation of "revenue growth without profit growth". According to the listing application, the funds are mainly used for the research and development of core technologies, the expansion of factories, and the strengthening of the sales network.

Secondly, the customer concentration is high.

According to the listing application, Deepway's revenue from the top five customers in 2024 was 999 million yuan, accounting for 50.7% of the revenue; among them, the revenue from the largest customer was 505 million yuan, accounting for 25.7%. In the first half of 2025, the proportion of revenue from the top five customers was still 51.4%, and the risk of customer concentration has not improved.

Thirdly, there is an "overlap between customers and suppliers".

The listing application shows that there is partially an "overlap between customers and suppliers" at Deepway. One of the top five customers is also one of the top five suppliers. Specifically, Customer A (a subsidiary of Supplier A) buys batteries from Deepway to rent them to end - customers, while Supplier A supplies batteries to Deepway for use in its new - energy trucks.

Fourthly, there is a risk of supply chain uniformity. In 2024, the purchase value of Deepway from the top five suppliers accounted for 92.3% of the total purchase, and the purchase value from the largest supplier was 2.23 billion yuan, accounting for 61%. The core suppliers include battery supplier Ningde Times and the partner for whole - vehicle adaptation Jianghuai Automobile. The high concentration of the supply chain leads to weak bargaining power. If the core suppliers interrupt the supply or increase the prices, it will directly affect production continuity and cost control.

Deepway has a high debt ratio

Fifthly, the debt ratio is high.

In 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025, the total assets were 508 million yuan, 1.348 billion yuan, 2.556 billion yuan, and 3.92 billion yuan respectively, while the total liabilities of the company in the same period were 691 million yuan, 1.92 billion yuan, 3.804 billion yuan, and 5.539 billion yuan respectively.

This means that Deepway's debt ratio during the reporting period was 136%, 142.43%, 148.83%, and 141.3% respectively and was always higher than 100%.

In addition, the listing application also shows that Deepway's trade and other receivables have increased from 39.4 million yuan at the end of 2022 to 1.415 billion yuan at the end of the first half of this year.

Deepway has explained: "This is mainly due to the rapid increase in the sales of new - energy trucks. (But) As the customer base continues to expand, the credit risk we are exposed to may increase."

The decision after five years and 1.96 billion yuan in capital raising: Listing as a lifesaver

Founded in 2020, DeepWay is a joint venture between Baidu and the truck logistics company Shiqiao.