| -

NEW YORK and SANTA MONICA, Calif. — The arrival of Elon Musk, the chairman and chief executive officer of Tesla Motors at NASDAQ MarketSite in New York's Times Square on Monday marked a monumental company achievement.

Musk rang the opening bell for trading as part of Tesla's way of celebrating its initial public offering on the NASDAQ Stock Market.

Along with the bell ceremony, Musk and other company executives showed off the manufacturer's lineup of electric vehicles, the Roadster and Model S.

Reportedly, Tesla is the first domestic automaker to put out an IPO since Ford Motor Co., made the move back in 1956.

Other online accounts mentioned Tesla boosted the number of shares it plans to offer in the deal by 20 percent to 13.3 million shares.

In all, some financial market analysts believe the deal could raise $244 million.

Edmunds.com Analysts React to Tesla IPO

Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl described Tesla's IPO on Monday as something reminiscent of the early days of the auto industry. Anwyl insisted that's when "interesting people took dramatic steps to beat the odds."

Anwyl shared more commentary for Edmunds' website that focuses on alternative-fuel vehicles, GreenCarAdvisor.com.

"The investment is a risk for investors, but some risks pay off," Anwyl pointed out.

"Even if this doesn't turn out well for investors, it's good for the country that Tesla has gotten so much attention for its innovative efforts," he added.

GreenCarAdvisor.com senior editor John O'Dell elaborated more about how important this financial undertaking is to Tesla's future prospects.

"This IPO isn't coming a moment too soon. After booking $290 million in losses and just $147 million in sales since it was founded in 2003, Tesla needs the cash — badly," O'Dell insisted.

"The money it will raise will help the company achieve its goal of putting the Model S into production by the end of 2011, but it is still a drop in the bucket compared to the capital it will take to keep an auto manufacturer running and healthy in the long term," he continued.

"If investors embrace the $14 to $15 a share price that the underwriters have set, it will been seen by many as a vote of confidence for a company that has so far failed to post a profit and that still faces many hurdles on its way to becoming a full-fledged automaker," O'Dell went on to say.