Tesla, Inc. delivered its first production Roadster sports cars in 2008.
The Roadster was Tesla’s first production vehicle and used lithium-ion battery cells, an unusual choice for a production electric car at the time. It was based on the Lotus Elise platform, but Tesla replaced much of the powertrain with its own electric-drive technology.
Tesla delivered the Roadster to its first customers in 2008 after development and production delays. The vehicle helped demonstrate that an electric car could offer sports-car performance rather than being designed only for short, low-speed urban trips.
Tesla later shifted toward higher-volume vehicles, beginning with the Model S sedan in 2012 and the Model X in 2015. A common mix-up is to identify the Model S as Tesla’s first car; it was the company’s first mass-produced sedan, not its first production vehicle.