Tesla delivered its first production Roadster to customers in 2008.
The Roadster was Tesla’s first production vehicle and was based on the Lotus Elise sports-car platform. Tesla used a lithium-ion battery pack and an electric powertrain, making the car an early high-profile demonstration that an electric vehicle could offer sports-car performance.
Tesla delivered the first production Roadster to company co-founder Martin Eberhard in February 2008. The model entered broader customer production later that year. Its design and engineering helped establish Tesla before the company moved into higher-volume vehicles such as the Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y.
The Roadster is sometimes confused with Tesla’s second-generation Roadster, announced in 2017 but not yet released as of 2026. The question refers to the original Roadster, whose production run lasted from 2008 to 2012.