Tesla Motors, the California-based electric startup company, is finally ready for its initial public offering (IPO). According to MarketWatch, the company anticipates raising $178 million as early as the end of this month.

Unfortunately, despite the hype surrounding anything related to Tesla, this multimillion-dollar IPO will probably not provide much of a boost for investments or for Silicon Valley technologies. One reason that this offering is unlikely to spur the IPO market is that there just isn’t much business available in the area. We have a lot more IPO movement this year than last year, but we are still far behind the glory days of earlier this decade.

A second reason is that Tesla is still unable to make money. Not only is the company still losing money; it may never be truly profitable. According to Newsweek, the company’s IPO has 42 pages of “risk factors” for investors.

We all know about the Tesla Roadster, but the sexy sports car is hardly a foundation upon which you can build a company. Tesla, at this point, remains a boutique auto company. Its $100,000 pride and joy is a marvelous feat of engineering, but it does not offer much else. Furthermore, someone in the market for a $100,000 sports car could get much higher “performance” from a Corvette, with none of the restrictions of relying on a battery.

Tesla has only sold just over 1,000 of its flagship vehicles, and the much-anticipated Model S sedan is still perhaps two years away from rolling off the factory line. The company has made a great deal of noise about bringing its Model S factory to California to cash in on the public relations coup of employing American workers.

However, employing American workers bumps up the price of the already expensive vehicle to nearly $50,000. At these prices, there is simply no sustainability for Tesla. They will not sell enough cars to cover operation costs, and will constantly need new infusions of cash. The upcoming IPO is merely part of this never-ending cash grab.

EconomyinCrisis.org, has encouraged American auto titans like GM, Ford, or Chrysler to get behind Tesla in the past two years. The fledgling company could use the shot in the arm provided by an American champion, the auto giants could use the perspective of their upstart rival.

Unfortunately, Tesla has found a different giant with which to partner; Toyota. A Tesla-Toyota marriage is the worst of both worlds for American automakers. Toyota is already using its privileged position to dominate over its American rivals, and now it has the inside line with the most encouraging newcomer in generations. Tesla is not profitable when it stands alone, but Toyota already happily loses money on every sedan they sell in the U.S. in their push to put Detroit out of business.

If and when Tesla reaches its goal of providing affordable cars to Americans while achieving its own sustainability, Toyota will be there to reap the rewards. If it fails and eventually collapses, Toyota can write it off as a bad business deal and a lesson learned.

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