Ford sells $2bn of secondhand car-maker Tesla for $1.4bn

A second-year auction of a Tesla electric car and electric-car maker Tesla for about $1bn in cash and stock is set to close at 8:00pm local time on Friday.

The company, founded in 2003, is an Australian electric car maker and one of the biggest sellers of second-generation electric vehicles in the world.

The auction is expected to close in the afternoon.

The deal is expected by analysts to close by the end of the week and will be the largest cash sale in history for an Australian car company.

Tesla is expected have a market capitalisation of about $40 billion, with its shares up more than 40 per cent since the start of the year.

Tesla was founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The sale follows a $500m cash deal that was announced last year to buy the shares of an Australian mining company, Suncorp.

Suncorps shares closed down by 4.5 per cent to $6.60 on Thursday.