Chinese electric carmaker Nio raised roughly $1 billion in its initial public offering Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

In August, Nio [NYSE: NIO] announced that it hoped to raise $1.3 billion in its initial public offering. Wednesday's launch around $6 per share fell short of that, but trading jumped Thursday and Friday well above its initial price to around $12 per share.

DON'T MISS: Chinese electric carmaker Nio seeks public funding in US

The company planned to use the funds to develop future electric cars for the U.S. and Chinese markets and to develop self-driving software.

Nio currently sells an electric SUV in China, the ES8, designed to compete with the Tesla Model X.

The ES8 sells for $65,000 in China, about half what a Tesla Model X costs, and has 220 miles of range and 644 horsepower.

CHECK OUT: Chinese electric-car startup Nio gets $1 billion in funding: report

Nio became one of the most promising Chinese automakers after it introduced the EP9 electric supercar in 2016, then put the ES8 SUV into production.

The company also builds a race car for the Formula E series and has plans for a second electric production car, a luxury sedan based on its Eve concept car.

Nio doesn't sell the ES8 in the U.S., but has an office in San Jose, California to work on self-driving technology and to bring its cars to the U.S.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Nio was the first Chinese carmaker to be publicly traded in the U.S.