Tesla delivered its first production Roadster to customers in 2008.
The first-generation Roadster was Tesla’s debut production vehicle. It used a lightweight sports-car body based on the Lotus Elise and an electric powertrain powered by lithium-ion battery cells. The model demonstrated that an electric car could offer sports-car performance rather than serving only as a short-range commuter vehicle.
Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, with Elon Musk joining as a major early investor and chairman. Musk later became the company’s chief executive and a central public figure associated with Tesla.
The Roadster should not be confused with the later Tesla Roadster announced in 2017. The first model reached customers in 2008; the newer model was presented as a future high-performance vehicle.