Tesla Roadster

Year: 2008
Creator: Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, Elon Musk
Company: Tesla Motors
Location: San Carlos, California
Room: The Rebuild ↗

Description

The Tesla Roadster is a two-seat electric sports car with a battery of lithium-ion cells. Tesla Motors started regular production in March 2008 and delivered approximately 2,450 cars by the end of 2012.

Importance

Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning started Tesla in 2003, and Elon Musk became its largest shareholder in 2004. The Roadster could accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds. Its electric powertrain became the base of the Model S, which Tesla started to build in Fremont in June 2012.

Interesting fact

Its battery pack held 6,831 lithium-ion cells, and each cell was similar to the cells in many laptop computers.

Sources

Tesla Motors Begins Regular Production of 2008 Tesla Roadster ↗Tesla · 2008-03-17
Tesla ↗Acquired (podcast)
History of Tesla, Inc. ↗Wikipedia
Tesla Motors, Inc. final IPO prospectus (Form 424B4) ↗U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · 2010-06-29
Tesla Motors, Inc. annual report for 2012 (Form 10-K) ↗U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · 2013-03-07