9:00 AM New York – Tesla Motors will commence trading on the Nasdaq today after having priced its initial public offering of 13.30 million common shares at $17.00 per share, above its estimated offering price range.

Tesla Motors, Inc., the electric carmaker announced on Monday that it has priced its initial public offering of 13.30 million common shares at $17.00 per share, above its estimated offering price range. The size of the offering was enhanced by 20% from its earlier plan to offer 11.10 million shares. The Palo Alto, California-based company said the shares will begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market today under the ticker symbol """"""""TSLA.""""""""

With the revised pricing, the company is now expected to raise an estimated $225 million compared to the $100 million it estimated in late January.

Tesla intends to use a portion of the net proceeds from this offering to fund planned capital expenditures, working capital and other general corporate purposes. The company would also set aside 50% of the net proceeds from this offering and the concurrent private placement proceeds to fund project costs of the anticipated powertrain and Model S manufacturing facilities.

Of the 13.30 million shares being offered in the IPO, Tesla Motors is offering 11.88 million shares and selling stockholders are offering 1.42 million shares. Tesla will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by selling stockholders. Tesla Motors has granted underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 1.995 million common shares at the IPO price, to cover over-allotments, if any.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as the joint book-running managers for the offering.

Tesla reported a narrower loss of $55.74 million for the full-year ended December 31, 2009 compared to a net loss of $82.78 million reported a year ago. Annual revenues soared to $111.94 million from $14.74 million last year.

The majority shareholders of Tesla Motors are Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, Blackstar Investco LLC, Al Wahada Capital Investment LLC, entities affiliated with VantagePoint Venture Partners, and entities affiliated with Valor Equity Partners.