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Tesla Roadster Fever Expands

Fresh into the initial public offering, American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla announced its single in-production vehicle, the Roadster, has been delivered to five more countries, expanding the number of markets it is present in to 28.

The first Roadsters have been delivered to Japan, Hong Kong, Poland, Turkey and Canada these past few weeks, helping both expand the carmaker's presence worldwide and put to rest worries about Tesla's future. So far, Tesla sold some 1,200 Roadsters.

As an early adopter, I wanted to invest my own money to show the rest of society what the electric car experience is like,” said Ozawa, the Japanese customer who bought the first Tesla Roadster in the country.

“And now that I own a Tesla, I've found that not only is it efficient and beautiful – but it’s really, really fast!”

Last week, Tesla announced and at the same time confirmed it is working on an electric version of the RAV4 together with Japanese manufacturer Toyota, as part of the evaluation program which will eventually lead to an electric Toyota vehicle.

The project calls for a Toyota-built vehicle to be equipped with a Tesla electric powertrain. Even if this is not a guarantee of the fact that Toyota will use Tesla's battery packs in its future electric vehicles, it's a sign that the partnership between the two, previewed this May, is moving forward.

“Tesla seeks to learn and benefit from Toyota's engineering, manufacturing, and production expertise, while Toyota aims to learn from Tesla's EV technology, daring spirit, quick decision-making, and flexibility,”
the two manufacturers say.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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