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A Nio EP9 autonomous electric vehicle, on display at the company's Nio House brand experience center in Beijing. Photo credit: Bloomberg Nio Inc., the Chinese electric-car maker backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., is planning a U.S. initial public offering that would give it a valuation topping $8 billion as it gears up to take on the likes of Tesla Inc. The company is aiming to raise as much as $1.3 billion, offering 160 million American depositary shares at $6.25 to $8.25 each, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday in the U.S. That would give the company a market capitalization of about $6.4 billion to $8.5 billion. Nio is among Chinese electric-car companies raising money to fund aggressive product development and expansion amid the auto industry's seismic shift toward alternative-power and autonomous vehicles. China's government is also pushing to increase the use of battery-powered cars to cut pollution and reduce dependence on imported oil, spawning a clutch of star...