WeRide’s shares are now listed on both the Nasdaq and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. WeRide elected for a dual primary listing, which will allow mainland Chinese investors to buy the stock through the city’s Southbound Stock Connect scheme.
Han says the funds raised through the Hong Kong listing will help the robotaxi firm continue to spend on R&D and deployment. “We will still need to raise more funds,” he said, “so this will put WeRide in a much better position to access more funds.”
Fellow robotaxi firm Pony AI also starts trading in Hong Kong today after its own IPO on that exchange. Like WeRide, Pony AI listed on the Nasdaq late last year.
Hong Kong’s IPO market is booming as Chinese firms hope to leverage the city’s access to both international and mainland Chinese capital. Firms listed in mainland China, including home appliance manufacturer Midea and battery-maker CATL, have launched secondary listings in Hong Kong in order to draw international investment.
WeRide HK-listed shares fell almost 12% on their first day of Hong Kong trading; the firm’s shares have lost over 40% of their value since the U.S. IPO. Pony AI’s HK shares fell around 14%.
“Most accidents, we find, are due to human factors,” Han explained, citing the effects of drinking, drowsiness, and distractions on human drivers. “Machines won’t be drunk, won’t overdose. Machines are very reliable. Fatal accident rates for robotaxis are much lower than human drivers.”
Less congestion could be another benefit of automated vehicles. “Robotaxis will never speed, will never just cut in line,” he said. “Traffic will just flow much more smoothly.”
That extends to public transport and public services. WeRide runs robobuses, robosweepers, and other automated forms of public transit and city vehicles. “The cost of bus drivers in a developed economy is quite high,” Han explained. If these costs can be reduced through automation, he argued, then cities can expand their transit systems and “help build more eco-friendly transportation for the whole planet.”
Yet HSBC also predicted that robotaxis will likely reach their commercial potential in China first, due to greater adoption and acceptance of robotaxi technologies.
China also manufactures many of the components that go into self-driving cars. One key component producer is Hesai Technology, the world’s leading producer of automotive lidar sensors, which are used by robotaxis and other autonomous vehicles to recognize their environment and avoid obstacles.
Han isn’t surprised that global firms are now embracing Chinese robotaxis. After all, if China offers the best product, why wouldn’t foreign firms want to cooperate with it?
“When I was a teenager, we bought electronics from Japan, tools from Germany and computers from the U.S. It’s very normal. It’s very normal,” Han said.
“If WeRide can supply good robotaxi technology and services to Uber, and in turn, Uber and WeRide together bring a very efficient and comfortable taxi service to ordinary people; why shouldn’t we do that?”
