Tesla delivered its first production Roadster cars in 2008.
The original Tesla Roadster was based on the Lotus Elise sports-car platform but used a battery-electric powertrain developed for Tesla. The company began deliveries in 2008, making the Roadster the first production car launched by Tesla. Its performance helped challenge the assumption that electric vehicles had to be slow or limited to short urban trips.
The Roadster used thousands of lithium-ion battery cells and had a claimed range of more than 200 miles under the testing standards used at the time. Tesla produced roughly 2,450 Roadsters between 2008 and 2012. The model was sold in multiple countries and helped attract attention, investors, and customers before Tesla introduced higher-volume vehicles.
The Roadster is often confused with the later Tesla models, especially the Model S, which entered production in 2012. The first Roadster was a low-volume sports car; the Model S was a larger sedan designed to broaden Tesla’s market.