Chris Woodyard

USA TODAY

Apple%27s acquisition chief met with Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk%2C a report says

Now Tesla%27s stock price is surging

Earnings are a day away

Shares of Tesla Motors hit a new high Tuesday as investors continued to react to news that the electric-car maker's CEO met with Apple's acquisitions chief.

Tesla, which reports earnings Wednesday, saw shares surge to an all-time high shortly before noon ET -- $205.72. The stock ended up closing at $203.70, up $5.47 or 2.8% from Monday's closing price of $198.23.

Tesla now has a market value of about $25 billion. It makes the Model S electric car, a luxury model that has the longest range of any car of its type, and has reported that it is on track to have sold about 20,000 of them in 2013. But the news that also raised interest in the company was about the talks with Apple.

Apple acquisition chief Adrian Perica secretly met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk last spring, according to a source, but neither Apple nor Tesla will confirm the meeting or say what they talked about, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The meeting took place at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., not far from Tesla Motor's headquarters in Fremont.

Last summer, at least one analyst was suggesting that Apple buy Tesla, not as much for its electric-car technology but to win the services of Musk, who is also CEO of rocket maker SpaceX. Analyst Adnaan Ahmad, in an "open letter", said Musk could take a leading role in a partnership and could lead innovation at Apple, much the same role that late Apple CEO Steve Jobs once fulfilled.

Apple has taken an interest in cars, with iPhone voice Siri showing up in several models, including those from Chevrolet. Tesla, for its part, has tried to stay on the forefront of mobile electronics in its Model S sedan. The center console is dominated by a huge 17-inch touch screen, one of the largest in any current car, with ready access to the Internet.