Three original Tesla Roadster vehicles are close to fetching over $A1.1 million after being found in nearly new condition in a Chinese shipping container.
Three Tesla Roadster vehicles were recently found in shipping containers that had not been tampered with since they were delivered to a customer in China back in 2010.
They are currently being auctioned off by a Tesla Roadster workshop called Gruber Motors in the US which also runs a Roadster match-making service since these vehicles have not been in production since 2012.
According to Gruber Motors, these are rare finds, as they explained:
“So, what if you could go back in time, Tesla time that is, and buy a brand new Roadster from Tesla? Would you do it?
“Here is your chance, since a time capsule has just been opened, and here is the interesting tale:
“In 2010, a customer in China bought three brand new US spec LHD Roadsters from Tesla. They got shipped to a dock in China, but were abandoned by the buyer.
“They have been sitting in sea containers, at a port, since 2010, untouched, accruing storage charges. Storage charges are being paid for by the seller.”
The three Roadsters spotted include left-hand-drive US variants of the Roadster Sport variant. Two of the three are Orange while the final one is in Red.
The bid on the three started earlier this month and quickly got up to $A750,000. Since then it’s gradually crept up to over $A1.13 million with under three days left until the bidding closes.
In Australia, rare examples of the Roadster do come up for sale every so often. Currently, there is a 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport in Red available for auction by Shannons in Melbourne.
The current highest bid for that example is $A105,000.
In 2011, the original driveaway price of the Sport version was $A260,535. These produced 215 kW of power and 400 Nm in torque.
Tesla, the electric car leader, started the journey in the mid-2000s by manufacturing the company’s first production model, the Roadster.
Back then, it was based on AC Propulsion’s tzero concept car. The concept car helped with the powertrain engineering of the Roadster.
Following that, the vehicle engineering and design of the car was done in conjunction with the British sportscar maker, Lotus.
The original roadster looks were heavily inspired by the Lotus Elise. Lotus also assisted Tesla with partially assembling the Roadster.
Along with that, Lotus also helped with the chassis engineering of the vehicle.
In the entire production run for the Roadster, over 2,500 examples of the Roadster were sold. Based on that, these container finds in China are definitely rare finds.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.