Tesla Roadster History

The Roadster was Tesla's first production car and the company's proof of concept: a two-seat electric sports car built on a heavily modified Lotus Elise platform (the two cars shared only a small fraction of their parts). It was the first highway-legal production car to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production EV with a range over 200 miles per charge, EPA-rated at 244 miles.

Power came from a single AC induction motor — around 248 hp standard and 288 hp in the later Sport trim — fed by a 53 kWh battery, giving a 0–60 mph time of roughly 3.7–3.9 seconds. About 2,450 cars were built and delivered across more than 30 countries before production ended in early 2012, with around 1,800 sold in the United States.

Low-volume and over $100,000, the Roadster was never meant to be a mass-market car; it existed to fund and prove the technology behind the Model S that followed. One Roadster gained lasting fame in 2018 when it was launched into space as the dummy payload on the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy test flight.