Tesla, the electric car company behind the Roadster sportscar, has just announced that they're lining up to undertake an Initial Public Offering of its stock, floating a part of the comany on the markets.

Yesterday they submitted papers in the US with regulators in order to be allowed to sell a stake valued at around $100m, adding to the near £500m loans that the US government lent them last year to help stimulate development of their "green"-tech as well as their production facilities.

The company may be going through a dead zone at the end of next year though, as production plans for the new car (the Model S) aren't scheduled to start until 2012, with their only current model (the Roadster) perhaps ending its production life at some point in 2011.

Still, it's another big Silicon Valley IPO, showing signs that - whilst the bubble isn't inflating yet - the pop is over.

[SF Gate]