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Tesla Motors hopes to raise up to $178 million through its highly anticipated initial public offering of stock, the Palo Alto-based car manufacturer announced in a Security and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday.
The electric-vehicle company, best known for its sleek and sporty Roadster model, plans to sell 11.1 million shares of its stock for $14 to $16 a share, according to the new documents. The sales would bring in between $155 million and $178 million.
As of March 31, the electric-vehicle manufacturer had sold 1,063 Roadsters in 22 countries, the filings state. Last year, it unveiled its next project – the Model S sedan, which it plans to produce in volume in 2012 and to sell for $57,400 in the United States.
The company also announced last month that it is partnering with Toyota to build electric vehicles in the New United Motor Manufacturing plant in Fremont, a move that was hailed as a victory for the plant and for the fledgling electric-car industry. According to the filing, Tesla plans to use the new facility to manufacture electric vehicles that would cost less than the Model S.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla has scheduled its initial public offering for the week of June 28.
“Our long-term goal is to offer consumers a full range of electric vehicles, including a product line at a lower price point than the planned Model S,” the company stated in its filing.
The new model would be produced at higher volumes than Model S and would be sold several years after Model S is introduced, the company stated.
Despite its revolutionary electric powertrain technology and its high profile, Tesla has yet to turn a profit. The company has incurred net losses of about $290.2 million through March 31, according to its filing. This includes a loss of $29.5 million for the three months before March 31.
The company also expects “significant increases in our costs and expenses to result in continuing losses for at least the foreseeable future” as it continues to design, develop and manufacture Model S, open new stores and upgrade its electric powertrain components.
Despite these losses, Tesla said in its prospectus that it believes its technology and Silicon Valley experience will allow it to lead the electric-vehicle industry.
“Since out team combines the innovation and speed to market characteristics of Silicon Valley firms with the experience of leading automotive companies, we believe that we will be able to rapidly and cost effectively introduce additional vehicles, such as our planned Tesla Model S sedan, and stay at the forefront of the electric automobile industry,” the company stated.
The company also proposed to be listed on Nasdaq as “TSLA.”
TESLA’s major problem is that it has not done the proper marketing on this HIGH priced vehicle and it comes off as a negative.
Since the death of the original founders, has anyone TRY and make this a feasible venture in which the average person could be a buyer?
It reeks of elitism still.
R. Gordon –
You have a bad habit of commenting before you perform even the most elementary review of facts.
The founder of Tesla Motors is Elon Musk and he still running the company. He was not in the recent airplane crash – it was two engineers and electronics manager. http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-02-19/news/17946830_1_tesla-motors-elon-musk-tesla-chief-executive No founder or senior executive was in that crash. While their loss is tragic, I don’t think their loss impacted the strategic course of the company.
Tesla is developing several other cars and some of them are beautiful, geared to a growing family, practical (lots of room and seating) and not as expensive as you may think ($49,000). You may want to take 30 seconds and check it out here http://www.teslamotors.com/buy/buyshowroom.php something you probably should have done before your last post.
Sign me up – I’ll invest. I cannot yet afford to invest by purchasing a Tesla Roadster (much as I want to) but I will certainly invest some cash to purchase a few shares of stock while I save up for the 2.0 version of the cars. Go Tesla! I want you to succeed beyond everyone’s wildest dreams!
There is plenty of hope for travel to the moon too.
I think this project should have ended as soon as we found out how much money was given by the government for the project (a half billion dollars)and for a car which falls into the luxury field.
China and other countries are building electric cars which start below $10,000 bucks.
As for POGO’s critique of me, I have more knowledge about this project and others involving electric cars than anyone who wishes to invest in this project, which is typically elitist.
Please regale us with your expertise Mr. Gordon
Where would you like me to start?
In Sacramento or Los Angeles or with Toyota?
Was it NIKOLAI TESLA, who inspired the name for this VERY expensive and government backed public offered series of vehicle?
The promotional site would lead anyone to believe this is an up and running company selling autos to EVERYMAN.
What is it about this company that gives it so much attention even though the chances of its success is negligible in what is laughingly called “THE AUTO INDUSTRY” of the U.S……..it DOES NOT EXIST…and this rich man’s toy is certainly not a solution.
It bears investigation.