SAN FRANCISCO — US electric sports car maker Tesla Motors plans to go public soon, two sources familiar with the matter said at the weekend, amid growing interest in green technology and battery- powered vehicles.
An initial public offering (IPO) filing from the six-year-old start-up, best known for its 109000 all-electric Roadster, is expected any day, said one of the sources. The source did not give a specific time frame, although IPOs typically take several months.
Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes declined to comment on what he called “rumour or speculation”.
Tesla would mark the first public offering from a US car maker since Henry Ford’s Ford Motor made its share debut in 1956. The IPO represents a landmark in the resurgence of electric car technology that most car makers had dismissed as impractical until recently.
Company chairman Elon Musk said early last year that an IPO was a possibility in either late last year or this year.
But the financial market turmoil following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the latter half of last year virtually shut down the IPO market. The appetite for IPOs has picked up since the middle of September, with a robust pace of new filings. Tesla’s IPO would follow the very successful debut of lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems , whose shares rallied 50% on their first day of trading in September.
Analysts have said the success of A123, the first green technology IPO this year, would encourage more venture capital- backed green companies to go public.
Tesla will compete with established car makers such as Ford, General Motors and Nissan Motor , all of which are racing to launch electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles Tesla, by contrast, is a small player with a high-end market and limited production.
A combination of factors has driven the recent interest in developing electric or partially electric vehicles, including the Obama administration’s drive to have 1- million rechargeable vehicles on US roads by 2015 and low-cost energy department loans for manufacturers.
The car maker is developing a second, lower-cost model, an electric sedan known as the Model S, which will have a base price of 49900.
Tesla said in September it delivered 700 Roadsters since February last year .
Tesla’s investors include Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.