The Roadster was the first automobile Tesla made. Tesla Motors introduced it to the automotive industry as a prototype in 2006. It was at a small event held by Tesla at Santa Monica airport when The Roadster first grabbed the attention it needed. Later that year, it got its moment to shine at the San Francisco International Auto Show as it got introduced to the public for the first time.
The Time Magazine featured the car in the "Best Inventions 2006-Transportation Inventions" award. Due to the characteristics The Roadster offered, it excited the tech nerds that year. The publicity around the car led to some interesting statistics; the company pre-sold hundreds of vehicles before its mass production in early 2008. After its presentation to the car market, around 2450 Roadsters were sold by Tesla in more than 30 countries.
The car that inspired future EVs is a replicate of another vehicle; its design is based on the Lotus Elise. Despite this, the Roadster isn't just an electric copy of the Elise. Quite the contrary, you can tell it apart from Lotus's sports car. It has a body of carbon fiber instead of fiberglass, and Tesla's original parts are in the vehicle's design.
A big high-tech 53 kWh Lithium-ion battery is installed in the Roadster's trunk that, when fully charged, the car can travel up to 300 miles. This unique exclusivity of the Roadster was among many other features that helped it stick out. There was much hype around the old Roadster, and it was not for nothing; this EV came with quirks and features that no one had heard of before.
The Roadster Was A Projection Of The Future
One of these forethoughtful features was using regenerative braking, the slowing vehicle converts its kinetic energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. In this operation, the electric traction motor uses the vehicle's momentum to recover energy that would otherwise be lost to the brake discs as heat.
Regenerative braking as a principal has been around for a while. This braking system was first seen in its current form in application with the 1967 AMC Amitron. AMC created this novel braking system in the Amitron as the primary braking system of their concept EV. However, there still is a need for mechanical braking to achieve the best result, especially to bring a vehicle to a stop and hold it to a standstill.
Another state-of-the-art feature in the original Roadster is the monitoring system on the steering wheel's left side. In modern EVs, there are Time's Square amount of screens that may be more fashionable than practical.
The monitoring screen on the ld Roadster, although not as big and as fancy as today's Electric vehicle screens, is quite what you need on an EV. This small screen showcases essential information regarding rage and battery percentage while driving. Moreover, the screen can be navigated to other informative data like the total mileage and seamlessly tell you your torque, power, and acceleration.
The Tesla Roadster Made Electric Cars Cool
Besides offering tons of tech features, another factor that helped the car's popularity was its adventurous and fun nature in driving. Sitting behind the car's wheels feels like a tiny dose of adrenalin that gearheads champ at the bit for.
It can sprint from idle to 60 mph in no more than 3.9 seconds and reach a high speed of 125 mph. What's more, you feel every inch of the road driving the car.
Besides its eerily quickness and futuristic features, It's an eye-catching dead-sexy car and still has its trendy look even though it came to the market in the 2000s. Tesla chose a very stylistic coloring pallet when it came to the Roadster. Colors like Arctic White, Brilliant Yellow Metallic, Electric Blue, and the famous Fusion Red were among the colors the company used in the vehicle's production.
How The Original Tesla Roadster Help Shape The Automotive Future
The Tesla Roadster was a revolutionary invention presented to the automotive industry. It's a first-class piece of machinery that inspired the later EVs.
It found its way into the heart of car lovers very quickly. The vehicle once called "the future of the automobile" isn't just a distant nostalgia today; it still has its die-hard fans, and its popularity does not seem to be dropping.
It has a special place in the automotive industry's history book. It was the first electric highway-legal vehicle with such a functioning system that led to mass production. Regarding the technology used, it hit many milestones in the industry for the first time.
All these can only lead to a conclusion; the old roadster was a machine way ahead of its time!