Tesla's first car was a Lotus-based roadster built in the thousands, not millions
Long before Tesla sold millions of cars, it built about 2,450 two-seat sports cars on a Lotus Elise chassis. The first Roadster, delivered in 2008 to its own chairman, Elon Musk, became the first production electric car to run on lithium-ion cells and go beyond 200 miles on one charge.
Tesla Motors showed prototypes on July 19, 2006, at an invitation-only event for 350 guests in a hangar at Santa Monica Airport. Time magazine named it a best invention of 2006 in transportation that December. The concept was bold for its day: a highway-legal, series-production electric car using lithium-ion battery cells, borrowing the chassis of the lightweight Lotus Elise.
Deliveries began in February 2008, the very first car going to Musk, then an early investor, chairman and product architect. About 500 similar cars followed by June 2009. In July 2009 the 2010 model year brought the first big upgrade, with a nicer interior, a push-button gear selector, a dash screen showing live range and even barrels of oil saved, better climate control, adjustable suspension and a more efficient hand-wound motor. A Roadster Sport arrived at the same time, reaching 60 mph in 3.7 seconds.
By the numbers, the EPA rated the Roadster at 244 miles per charge, with a top speed of 125 mph, and its efficiency in September 2008 was reported as the equivalent of 120 miles per gallon. Tesla added right-hand-drive cars from early 2010, and to prove the car was practical it sent one on a round-the-world trip that started at the Geneva motor show in March 2010 and finished in Paris on September 28, 2010. A Roadster 2.5 update that July added a new front end and rear diffuser, better seats, hardware for very hot climates, an optional 7-inch touchscreen with a reversing camera and a quieter cabin.
Production ran from 2008 to 2012, with the last cars sold mostly in Europe and Asia at the end of 2012. The Roadster reached buyers in over 30 countries and qualified for government incentives in several of them, establishing the company that would go on to far larger things.
Source: Tesla Roadster (first generation)
