The IPO race of government-supported car companies is on.
In one corner, General Motors, the nation’s largest auto maker and recipient of $50 billion in taxpayer assistance, gunning for an initial public offering sometime this year, as it tries to repay taxpayers for its historic bailout last year.
In the other is Tesla Motors Inc., a small Palo Alto Calif.-based company that makes fast pricey electric cars. It has a $465 million loan from taxpayers to help it develop an electric powered technologies. Tesla said in securities filing that is is planing an IPO, but didn’t give any sense of timing.
Tesla has reignited the public’s fascination with electric cars because it has managed to sell an electric car that can actually reach highway speeds. They are also fun to drive, says
WSJ’s Joe White, who test drove Tesla Roadster recently. “It is like driving a plus-size go kart,” he wrote. One little snag: They cost a minimum of $109,000 each.
Meantime, GM is leaning on its less-fuel efficient pickup trucks to help the company recover from its near - collapse last year. To be sure, GM is also developing an electric car, the $40,000 Chevy Volt. But the company says it realizes that it needs to focus on what sells, no matter how much gas the vehicle guzzles.
Right now, neither of these companies represents a deeply-compelling purchase. Tesla still has a far way to go before becoming anything more than a niche, feel-good vanity car. GM’s efforts, similarly,
seem built more on hope than facts. This Great IPO race is being fueled by a lot of hot air.
The Great IPO Race: Tesla vs. GM - Deal Journal - WSJ