Tesla Motors Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif. based company, is scheduled to make a public offering to trade at the end of the month in hopes of raising as much as $178 million. The electric car maker, best known for its one and only all electric Roadster model, plans to sell 11.1 million shares at about $15 per share.

At the end of last month the company announced a $50 million investment from Toyota Motor Corp., and that they would be moving into the automobile plant recently closed by Toyota.

Tesla said it lost $25.5 million in the first quarter of 2010, compared to a quarterly loss of $16.0 million a year earlier. For all of 2009, it lost $55.7 million less than the loss in 2008. While electric automobiles are seen as an emerging technology, they are considered an early-stage industry that could take a decade to become more established, making the Tesla offering riskier.