Tesla Roadster ships

The 2008 Tesla Roadster shattered the assumption that electric cars had to be slow, ugly and short-ranged. Built on a Lotus Elise-derived chassis with a ~53 kWh lithium-ion battery, it was the first highway-legal production car to use lithium-ion cells and the first to travel more than 200 miles on a charge — about 244 miles by EPA rating.

It was also genuinely fast, sprinting from 0–60 mph in under four seconds and embarrassing petrol sports cars at the lights. Roughly 2,450 were built and sold across more than 30 countries before production ended in 2012.

The Roadster's real purpose was strategic. It proved electric vehicles could be desirable performance machines rather than compliance compromises, and the profits and credibility it generated funded the Model S — step two of Musk's master plan. Every Tesla since traces its lineage to this low-volume, high-impact first car.