Common stock of newly-public Tesla Motors jumped 41 percent in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Shares opened at $17, and rose steadily before a mid-day surge in price.
Trading under the stock symbol TSLA, the stock peaked at $25 just before closing at $23.89.
Tesla has spent over $300 million since its founding in 2003. The company has yet to turn a profit in a single quarter, but Tesla executives believe they can turn things around by 2012, when the all-electric Model S sedan is slated to go on sale.
Thus far, the firm's only vehicle in production is the $109,000 two-seat battery-powered Tesla Roadster. Like the Model S, the Roadster was fraught with development delays. The car was the subject of a recall related to parts of its rear and its suspension in 2009.
Tesla is the first U.S. automaker to go public since Ford Motor Co. released shares in 1956.
