From: Speeders & Drunk Drivers Are Murderers on

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/business/28tesla.html?src=busln

With First Share Offering, Tesla Bets on Electric Car’s Future
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 27, 2010

As Tesla Motors begins selling stock to the public on Tuesday, the
offering’s success depends on how much investors are willing to bet on
a car company that has never made a profit and expects to lose money
until at least 2012.

Tesla will be the first automaker to go public since the Ford Motor
Company held its initial public offering in 1956. It expects the stock
sale to raise up to $185 million.

The start-up company, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., believes
Americans’ taste in cars is changing. Most analysts agree that
electric cars like Tesla’s will catch on as gas prices rise and
environmental worries mount.

But Tesla faces bigger questions. It has lost $290.2 million since it
was founded in 2003 and has not had a profitable quarter.

It does not expect that to change until it starts selling its next
vehicle, a four-door electric sedan called the Model S, in large
numbers. That is not scheduled “until 2012, or possibly later,”
according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The only car that Tesla now offers is its two-door Roadster — priced
at more than $100,000. Tesla has sold just 1,000 since 2008.

Even if Americans embrace electric cars, by the time the Model S
arrives, it will most likely have tough competition. The Nissan Motor
Company is already taking orders on its electric car, the Leaf, which
gets 100 miles a charge and is priced at about $25,000 after tax
credits. The Chevrolet Volt, an electric car with a gasoline range-
extender, goes on sale by the end of this year with a $35,000 price
tag.

(snip)
From: Neo on
Toyota Motors has an agreement with Tesla to
purchase a signficant percentage of Tesla's
initial public offering of stock so that may
limit the number of stock issues that
is available for sale to the public and
also help stablize the price of Tesla's
stock -- atleast temporarily.


On Jun 28, 1:02 am, "Speeders & Drunk Drivers Are Murderers"
<threeb...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/business/28tesla.html?src=busln
>
> With First Share Offering, Tesla Bets on Electric Car’s Future
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
> Published: June 27, 2010
>
> As Tesla Motors begins selling stock to the public on Tuesday, the
> offering’s success depends on how much investors are willing to bet on
> a car company that has never made a profit and expects to lose money
> until at least 2012.