Beijing (ZXZC)- Xpeng Motors, a smart EV company in China, rang the New York Exchange’s opening bell virtually on August 27. The automaker, a five-year-old Chinese EV company, started trading under the symbol “XPEV” on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the third U.S.-listed Chinese EV startup.

photo source: Xpeng Motors

Earlier, the automaker said it would price its shares at $15, higher than the high range of $11 to $13, which it indicated before. The size of its IPO has been thus increased to about $1.5 billion. According to its original plan, the automaker wanted to sell 85 million American Depository Shares (ADS), but the demand is higher than expected so that it increased that to 99.7 million shares.

Xiaopeng He; photo source: Xpeng Motors

Xiaopeng He, chairman, CEO and co-founder of the company, said at the ceremony that going public will bring the company much more funding for its future development, especially for R&D and expansion of sales network. “With much more support, we will embrace the future of intelligent vehicles. We will definitely lead a fresh start of a new era,” said the CEO.

In the CEO’s opinion, change in energy, power of data and software, innovation in transportation, will be three main drivers to the development of smart vehicles. “I believe future vehicles will have new combination with software and data. That is why we think future vehicles will see dramatic changes and we will continue to go forward in those areas.

According to its IPO prospectus, it is the company’s vision to bring smart EV to Chinese consumers through innovation in autonomous driving, smart connectivity and core vehicle systems.