EXCLUSIVE - U.S. electric carmaker Tesla prepares IPO

By Poornima Gupta

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. electric sports car maker Tesla Motors plans to go public soon, two sources familiar with the matter said, amid growing interest in green technology and battery-powered vehicles.

An IPO filing from the six-year-old start-up, best known for its $109,000 all-electric Roadster, is expected any day, said one of the sources. The person did not give a specific time frame, although IPOs typically take several months.

Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes declined to comment on what he called "rumor or speculation."

Tesla would mark the first public offering from a U.S. automaker since Henry Ford's Ford Motor Co made its share debut in 1956. The IPO represents a landmark in the resurgence of electric car technology that most carmakers had dismissed as impractical until recently.

Company chairman Elon Musk said early last year that an IPO was a possibility in either late 2008 or 2009.

But the financial market turmoil following the collapse of Lehman Bros in the latter half of 2008 virtually shut down the IPO market. The appetite for IPOs has picked up since mid- September this year, with a robust pace of new filings.

Tesla's IPO would follow the successful debut of lithium- ion battery maker A123 Systems Inc, whose shares rallied 50 percent on their first day of trading on Sept 25.

Analysts have said the success of A123, the first green technology IPO this year, would encourage more venture capital- backed green companies to go public.