Autoblog Podcast #184 - IPOs, Manly Minivans, City Cars and Hemi horsepower

Dan Roth — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:28:00 EST

Filed under: Podcasts, Etc., Dodge, GM, Honda, Infiniti, Nissan, Earnings/Financials, Rumormill

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Chris Shunk rejoins Sam, Alex and Dan for Episode #184 of the Autoblog Podcast. Topics we mull are Tesla's actual IPO and General Motors' apparently impending public offering. Gordon Murray's T.25 city car makes the cut before we do a 180 and talk about the possibility of a 480-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT8 and a manlier minivan. It ends with your feedback, a tidy hour and ten minutes. See you next week!

Autoblog Podcast #184 - IPOs, Manly Minivans, City Cars and Hemi Horsepower

In the Autoblog Garage:

Infiniti G37x Coupe
Honda CR-Z
Nissan Altima V6

News:

Hosts:
Dan Roth, Sam Abuelsamid, Alex Nunez, Chris Shunk

Runtime: 71:22

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Autoblog Podcast #184 - IPOs, Manly Minivans, City Cars and Hemi horsepower originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tesla reportedly raises $226 million with IPO of 13.3M shares *Update

Chris Shunk — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Earnings/Financials, Tesla, Electric

Tesla Model S - Click above for high-res image gallery

A lot of analysts were bullish on Tesla's initial stock offering, and a report from Bloomberg proves that the electric car start-up is a buy with the investors of the world. Tesla reportedly raised $226 million with its IPO, or 13.3 million shares at $17 per. The $226 mil total went above and beyond the high-end figure of $16 per share.

The news has to come as a pleasant surprise for Elon Musk, the company's CEO and largest shareholder. Musk has reportedly spent $70 million of his own personal fortune propping up Tesla while the company's losses mounted. The successful IPO is even more surprising given the fact that the company has yet to turn a quarterly profit and lost a substantial $230.5 million since 2003. Even at the expected median price of $15 per share, Bloomberg data shows that Tesla was valued at 5.5 times its net tangible assets, which doesn't exactly sound terrific. Tesla's IPO was likely helped out by recent investments by Toyota and Daimler, giving the first U.S. automaker IPO in over 50 years some much-needed street cred. Interestingly, Tesla is the first U.S. automaker since the Ford Motor Company to throw its hat into the public stock ring, with the Blue Oval doing so way back in 1956.

Tesla's IPO was considered a bit of a crap shoot given the recent failures of other stock offerings coupled with the fact that the EV maker doesn't have a lot of product to make it an attractive buy. Tesla has managed to sell about 1,000 copies of its pricey roadster, but now that the First-on-the-Block crew has theirs, the battery-packed two-seater isn't exactly flying off the shelves. The Model S sedan, which will reportedly go 160 miles on a single charge, won't arrive until 2012 at the earliest.

*UPDATE: Shares are now trading some 40% higher than they initially traded at. Read the full story here.

Gallery: Tesla Model S in motion

[Sources: Bloomberg via BusinessWeek]

Tesla reportedly raises $226 million with IPO of 13.3M shares *Update originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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