Chapter 1. - The Tesla Roadster

Believe it or not, EVs have been around since the beginning of the 20th century, but thanks to some unfortunate events and its consequences, they were never brought to market in any significant numbers... until the Tesla Roadster.

Even though Tesla made only about 2500 roadsters, the product was significant enough to spark interest in society and every time they launch a new product, they'll get hundreds of thousands of preorders.

The first generation Tesla Roadster was basically a converted Lotus Elise. Their original plan was to order gliders (car without drivetrain) from Lotus, then install Tesla-made motors and battery packs.

This seemed like a good idea at first, but as they started to figure out how to fit the electric drivetrain into the car, they slowly realized they have to change almost everything... so the 240 mile range 288hp sports car ended up being a really expensive project and they couldn't automate any of the production, so everything was done by hand until they finally stopped production a few years later.

First generation Tesla Roadsters are still very popular, many of them are still perfectly functional, even though they lack fast charging.