TESLA

Tesla Roadster – Into the Wild

In the more than ten years that Tesla has been active in the Netherlands, it has managed to sell more cars in our country than Dacia has since 2005. And this, although Dacia is certainly not doing bad business here. No less than 74,069 Teslas were registered in our country between 2012 and 2023. Of these, no less than 42,988 are Model 3, 14,976 are Model S and 10,0472 are already Model Y. The winged SUV Model X already has 5,571 registrations in its name. What about the remaining 27 copies? These are Roadsters! The Tesla Roadster before the facelift. Even before Tesla introduced the Model S here in 2013, it was also selling a completely different model in the Netherlands. That's right: the Roadster. Although the Roadster had been launched years before in its country of origin, the United States, it was not until 2009 that the first example was registered in the Netherlands. The Roadster was available in the Netherlands for just under €100,000 and was not only on the price list as a 248hp electric fun machine, but also as a 288hp Roadster Sport. The orange copy in the photos is incidentally a so-called 'Roadster 2.5', therefore a sharp variant that you can recognize by its front bumper, the cooling vent in it with horizontal slats. The Roadster Sport badge at the rear shows that this is the most powerful variant of the electric two-seater. 

Tesla Roadster Sport Where the Tesla Model S and all the models that came after it were developed entirely by 'Musk's own club', the base Roadster is not. Although the technical part of the drive – and that was quite a bit – came completely from Tesla, the Roadster was basically a Lotus Elise. The Tesla Roadster here has always had a 53 kWh battery, good for a range of over 390 kilometers according to the very accurate US EPA cycle. With a car weight of over 1,200 kilograms, the Roadster was obviously considerably heavier than its British base, but it was still very fast. You can increase the speed from 100 km / h in 3.7 seconds, and you can also reach this speed in 3.9 seconds with the slightly less powerful basic version. Currently every Tesla model has a faster engine version, but remember that we are talking about an EV from over a decade ago. Fun fact: The Tesla Roadster was not only the first Tesla and the first mass-produced EV with a range of over 200 miles, but also the first car to be launched into space. Talk about big firsts. Incidentally, Tesla has been asking for a new Roadster since 2017, although it is always postponing the arrival of that car. The new Roadster is expected to enter production in late 2024.

by Lars Krijgsman