In addition to Vantage Point’s early bet on Tesla, Salzman’s firm is also the sole venture investor in Better Place, a company with plans to create the electric-vehicle version of the gas station for recharging and replacing spent batteries.

And it isn’t just the big car companies or investors in Tesla that see a future in electric cars. Investors have shown confidence in the sector prior to today.

While Tesla is the first car company to go public in half a century, investors last year drove up the initial public offering of a company that could hold the key for many electric cars. A123 Systems Inc., which makes batteries that could be used in electric cars, was the largest IPO of 2009.

And the biggest investor in the world, the U.S. government, is also no small player in the space. A Department of Energy seed program is spending $25 billion on the cars of tomorrow and has made loans to Tesla and Fisker, as well as General Motors and other more traditional car companies.

But even with all that, there’s no guarantee of success for Tesla or any of the other companies going electric. Tesla said as much in the prospectus it offered to IPO investors.

“Our growth is highly dependent upon the adoption by consumers of, and we are subject to an elevated risk of any reduced demand for, alternative-fuel vehicles, generally, and electric vehicles in particular. If consumers do not adopt electric vehicles, our business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results will be harmed,” Tesla admits. “The market for alternative-fuel vehicles is relatively new, rapidly evolving, characterized by rapidly changing technologies, price competition, additional competitors, evolving government regulation and industry standards, frequent new vehicle announcements, and changing consumer demands and behaviors.”

All of that may not have given pause to the investors who lined up for Tesla’s shares Tuesday. But it is a clear warning that Tesla and others involved in building an electric-vehicle industry are bucking 100 years of reliance on combustion engines and massive industries like the oil and traditional auto industry (even as traditional automakers play a role in bringing on electric cars).

This company, like others involved in the electric-car game, is trying something completely different.

And different doesn’t always pay—even if it did on Tuesday.

The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal contributed to this report.