Tesla Motors headed for Nasdaq 100

Silicon Valley electric-vehicle start-up Tesla Motors will replace Oracle in the Nasdaq 100 on 15 July after the enterprise software giant last month said that it would shift to New York Stock Exchange.

California-based Tesla, founded by Elon Musk, Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard, and named after electrical engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla, designs and manufactures electric-vehicles (EVs) and their powertrain components.

It is currently the only automaker in the US that builds and sells highway-capable EVs in serial production and has delivered more than 2000 Roadsters, the first production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells, to customers in North America, Europe and Asia.

It markets and sells its vehicles through a network of 32 stores in North America, Europe, and Asia, as well as over the Internet.

Tesla, in which Japanese carmaker Toyota holds a 3.6-per cent stake and is one of the biggest emerging players in the electric car sector, has made a total loss of $290 million on sales of $148 million since its inception in 2003 and posted profits for the first time during the first quarter of this year.

Its first car, the Tesla Roadstar hit the streets in early 2008 and four years later, over 2,300 Roadsters are driven in more than 37 countries.

It currently produces the model S and would bring in model X in the future.