Tesla
Tesla Roadster
The first generation Tesla Roadster is a battery electric sports car based on the Lotus Elise chassis, and was produced by Tesla Motors (now Tesla, Inc.) from 2008 to 2012. The Roadster was the first highway legal, serial production, all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car with a range of more than 200 miles (320 km) per charge. Tesla sold about 2,450 Roadsters in over 30 countries, and most of the last Roadsters were sold in Europe and Asia during the fourth quarter of 2012. Tesla produced right-hand-drive Roadsters from early 2010. The Roadster qualified for government incentives in several nations. According to the U.S. EPA, the Roadster can travel 244 miles (393 km) on a single charge of its lithium-ion battery pack. The vehicle can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 km/h) in 3.7 or 3.9 seconds depending on the model. It has a top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h). The Roadster's efficiency, as of September 2008, was reported as 120 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent (28 kW⋅h/100 mi) (2.0 L/100 km). It uses 21.7 kWh/100 mi (135 Wh/km) battery-to-wheel, and has an efficiency of 88% on average.
Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
UK fuel mix: —. Records from the VCA fuel & emissions archive.
Model years
Generations & variants
Photos
UK vehicles on the road
35 licensed and 16 SORN (51 total) at 2025 Q4.
| Year (latest quarter) | Vehicles |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 47 |
| 2015 | 48 |
| 2016 | 51 |
| 2017 | 51 |
| 2018 | 48 |
| 2019 | 50 |
| 2020 | 48 |
| 2021 | 51 |
| 2022 | 48 |
| 2023 | 49 |
| 2024 | 47 |
| 2025 | 51 |
DfT/DVLA VEH0120 vehicle licensing statistics, source ↗, Open Government Licence v3.0. Small counts are rounded or suppressed at source.
Sources
- Wikidata / Wikipedia profiles — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/cars/Q210893CC0 / CC BY-SA 4.0
- UK Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) fuel & emissions data — https://carfueldata.vehicle-certification-agency.gov.uk/Open Government Licence v3.0
- DfT/DVLA VEH0120 licensing statistics — https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/vehicle-licensing-statistics-data-tablesOpen Government Licence v3.0
- Car Model Index — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/Compiled record. Sources that do not permit reuse are not copied; this index is credited instead.