Tesla, a leading electric-vehicle company by market value, delivered its first production car in 2008. That car was the Tesla Roadster, a battery-electric sports car based on the Lotus Elise platform.
The Roadster used lithium-ion battery cells and demonstrated that an electric car could offer sports-car performance. Tesla began customer deliveries in 2008, although the model's production and delivery schedule changed during development. The Roadster was produced in limited numbers compared with Tesla's later mass-market vehicles.
Tesla was incorporated in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Elon Musk joined as an early major investor and became chairman, while other early leaders and employees helped develop the company. Musk was not one of the original incorporators, a distinction often blurred in simplified accounts of Tesla's history.
The Roadster preceded the Model S, which entered production in 2012. Tesla's first car was therefore not a Model S or Model 3; it was the original Roadster, whose production helped establish the company's electric-performance identity.