REPORT: Tesla planning to launch 2011 Roadster in more right-hand export markets
Tesla Roadster - Click above for high-res image gallery
According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the long-anticipated right-hand-drive Roadster is coming in the first quarter of 2010 and will be available in both standard and Sport guise. The first market that's slated for electrification is, as you would expect, the United Kingdom, and Tesla's first European showroom has already opened up in Knightsbridge.
In addition to the UK, Musk has also indicated that Japan, Australia and India are seen as important right-hand-drive markets for the automaker to pursue in short order. The switch from LHD to RHD is surely made easier by the fact that the Lotus Elise, which shares a large portion of its chassis with the Roadster, was initially designed as a
Interestingly, there's already a lone Tesla Roadster in Australia, but that left-hand-drive car was imported by a man named Simon Hackett for his own personal use at a cost of about $200,000 Australian dollars – nearly twice what a Roadster costs in the States. Click past the break to watch a short video segment featuring that car.
Gallery: Jason Calacanis' Tesla Roadster
Photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Go Auto]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dave 4:41PM (7/07/2009)
You guys may drive on the right side of the road, but we drive on the correct side of the road :-p
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ziv 6:51PM (8/03/2009)
Good for Tesla, I hope they can expand their market. How many have they actually built so far? 500? How long would it take Tesla to tool up to build 10,000 Model S sedans?
Even the Red Sox fans were right, eventually, when they always came back with, "Next year!"
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Chad 11:01PM (7/07/2009)
Seems like ABG is making some careless mistakes today, first the 1 in 3 cars deal with the Japan/Prius article now this one. 200k AUD = ~158k USD (not nearly double of ~110k for a new Roadster)
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Chris 3:29AM (7/09/2009)
So US taxpayer money was spent on Tesla just so they could turn a profit elsewhere, BUT the United States. Sad.
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