Photo: Gruber Motors | Edited
Three brand-new 2010 Tesla Roadsters were found abandoned in a container in China at the beginning of May. The stunning barn find was auctioned off, with bids topping $2 million at the time of writing. The mystery surrounding the Roadsters has also been solved, rounding up the story of the first EV model becoming a classic.
Electric vehicles are still novel, and you'd be hard-pressed to call one a classic. Still, with Tesla's success in the automotive market and considering it only built 2,500 Roadsters, the EV maker's first model is becoming a collectible. Examples of the original Tesla Roadster sold at auctions for anything between $50,000 and more than $1 million, so it's hard to see where this is going. Certainly, the Roadster has potential, and the latest story about the abandoned trio from China will only add to its appeal to collectors.
New information about the three brand-new 2010 Tesla Roadsters found in a container in China solves the mystery surrounding them. There were actually four Roadsters in the shipment, and all were ordered by a Chinese R&D company with the intention to tear down and reverse-engineer them. Fortunately, this didn't happen as the company went bankrupt and never took delivery of the cars. The three Tesla Roadsters will get into someone's collection as the first-ever EV barn find.
Based on the information added to the Gruber Motors website, the four Roadsters ordered by the Chinese company were VINs 1107, 1120, 1146, and 1185. The whereabouts of the fourth example with the VIN 1185 are not yet known, although there are separate parts pointing to the missing Roadster in the container. Among them are four wheels and tires, a complete door assembly, headlight assemblies, and many other small body trim parts. Still, there's no chassis, and the cars' keys are also missing. Gruber Motors has assured bidders that the keys will be replaced if the original ones will not be located.
The auction was supposed to end on May 26, but Gruber Motors extended the deadline until June 2. The highest bid was $800,000 for all three examples at the time, but it has risen spectacularly since then. The latest entry indicates that Gruber Motors received a $2 million bid for all three, double the offer floating around just a few days ago. According to Hagerty Valuation Guide, a Roadster in good condition typically sells for about $150,000. This doesn't consider time capsules such as this barn find, especially with an intriguing story like this.
The Roadster was Tesla's first electric vehicle built on a Lotus Elise chassis. It was also the first road-legal series-production EV to use lithium-ion batteries and the first EV with more than 200 miles (320 km) of range. Tesla built just 2,500 units between 2008 and 2012, which makes them quite rare, although it's impossible to know how many are still out there.
New information about the three brand-new 2010 Tesla Roadsters found in a container in China solves the mystery surrounding them. There were actually four Roadsters in the shipment, and all were ordered by a Chinese R&D company with the intention to tear down and reverse-engineer them. Fortunately, this didn't happen as the company went bankrupt and never took delivery of the cars. The three Tesla Roadsters will get into someone's collection as the first-ever EV barn find.
Based on the information added to the Gruber Motors website, the four Roadsters ordered by the Chinese company were VINs 1107, 1120, 1146, and 1185. The whereabouts of the fourth example with the VIN 1185 are not yet known, although there are separate parts pointing to the missing Roadster in the container. Among them are four wheels and tires, a complete door assembly, headlight assemblies, and many other small body trim parts. Still, there's no chassis, and the cars' keys are also missing. Gruber Motors has assured bidders that the keys will be replaced if the original ones will not be located.
The auction was supposed to end on May 26, but Gruber Motors extended the deadline until June 2. The highest bid was $800,000 for all three examples at the time, but it has risen spectacularly since then. The latest entry indicates that Gruber Motors received a $2 million bid for all three, double the offer floating around just a few days ago. According to Hagerty Valuation Guide, a Roadster in good condition typically sells for about $150,000. This doesn't consider time capsules such as this barn find, especially with an intriguing story like this.
The Roadster was Tesla's first electric vehicle built on a Lotus Elise chassis. It was also the first road-legal series-production EV to use lithium-ion batteries and the first EV with more than 200 miles (320 km) of range. Tesla built just 2,500 units between 2008 and 2012, which makes them quite rare, although it's impossible to know how many are still out there.
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