A Fundraising Effort for Tesla Should be Started

[electricman83]

Tesla is a great company with excellent potential. It is serious about making quality products. It has the potential to revitilize the shattered image of the American automobile industry being that it is an American brand that makes a great product. Also, it could really push electric vehicles into the mainstream.
The problem is Tesla is a very small company especially compared to the other automakers of the world. Tesla needs financial help to achieve becoming larger. I say that a GIGANTIC fundraising effort should be made to make Tesla a sizeable automaker that sells it's products in all fifty states and in most countries around the world. This may take billions of dollars and many years, but it will be worth it.
Regardless of what country their cars are manufactured in, Tesla should stay an American owned automaker as it can revitilize the image of American autobrands which has been shattered. German automaker Daimler is going to buy ten percent of Tesla. Who knows what other companies might also try to buy into Tesla. I think Tesla should also try to stay an indpendent company and not a subsidiary of a larger company.
Does anyone know how to start such a fundraising effort?

 

[BBHighway]

It's called an IPO, and Tesla would already be having one if the market conditions would support it.

Hopefully the recession will finally be over by the end of the year, and sometime next year we could see Tesla become a public company and raise maybe a billion dollars in the process.

All of us supporters would then be able to buy a stake in the company.

 

[DDB]

It's called an IPO, and Tesla would already be having one if the market conditions would support it.

Hopefully the recession will finally be over by the end of the year, and sometime next year we could see Tesla become a public company and raise maybe a billion dollars in the process.

All of us supporters would then be able to buy a stake in the company.

Yep, and on that note, if it can't compete against the big boys, then it should probably fail. Sorry if this sounds political or ideological, but it's how our market [should] works.

 

[Palpatine]

It's called an IPO, and Tesla would already be having one if the market conditions would support it.

Hopefully the recession will finally be over by the end of the year, and sometime next year we could see Tesla become a public company and raise maybe a billion dollars in the process.

I think it is actually a good thing that their IPO has been delay until 2010. If they had done the IPO last year it would be much smaller in terms of the amount of fresh money raised.

Now that they have the Model S in progress, the government low interest loan, alliance with Daimler and 1,300+ deposits for the Model S, that all adds up to a much stronger company next year than they were last year. That means a higher value once it starts trading.

By 2010 they will likely have over 3,000+ deposits for the Model S.

 

[BBHighway]

Yep, and on that note, if it can't compete against the big boys, then it should probably fail. Sorry if this sounds political or ideological, but it's how our market [should] works.

Umm, GM has received billions of dollars of government help, without which it would already be gone. Don't forget the government backing of the warranties, in addition to the direct funding. Without that, many people wouldn't even consider buying a GM vehicle.

The government also influences and manipulates the auto market in many other ways. For instance, governments of other countries pay for workers health care, while in this country the car makers have to. Consider also the effect of the CAFE standards and governmetn influence on the price of oil and gasoline and ethanol.

So already the "free market" has been hopelessly distorted. In reality there is no such thing as a free market. It is an imaginary construct, a mythical thing that people invoke when it's convenient and completely ignore when it suits them.