Tesla Roadster, the Only Car to Fly to Space, Turns 10

In March 2008, a then still low-profile Elon Musk announced the launch of the Founder’s Series Tesla Roadster, the world’s first production electric sports car. It predated most of the EVs currently on the market, sports or otherwise, by at least two years.

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At the time of its introduction, the car was the only highway legal serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. It also became the first electric car ever to travel, on a single charge, for some 320 km (200 miles).

Being the first of a new breed meant that it didn’t have the success some were hoping for. Tesla itself is quite tight-lipped when it comes to exactly how many of its models it sold, but word is no more than 2,500 units of the Roadster were delivered.

Still, the enthusiasm with which Elon Musk managed to make people pay for a car they knew nothing about made the Roadster an icon model in automobile history.

Since 2008, Musk’s interests have diversified so much that the car which can be blamed for starting the entire EV frenzy fell into oblivion. The launch of the Model S and subsequent models have also pushed the Roadster back into the shadows.

On February 6, 2018, however, all that changed and the Roadster came back into the spotlight. The launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy into space made the electric vehicle became the world’s first, and perhaps the only car to be hurled into space.

Currently, Elon Musk and Tesla are working on what may be called the second generation of the Roadster. Wearing the same nameplate, the new EV is advertised as the “quickest car in the world,” with a top speed of over 400 km/h (248 mph) and a range comparable with two a Jaguar I-Pace combined: 1,000 km (621 miles).

Just as the original Roadster, the new one is, for the moment, made up only of promises. But, just as the original, it may end up revolutionizing the industry once more.

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