Forget barn finds – what about a container find? Three original Tesla Roadsters have been discovered in China, and are currently for sale via Gruber Motor Company.
According to the listing, the three US-spec Roadsters – two in Very Orange, one in Radiant Red – were ordered by a customer in China back in 2010 and subsequently abandoned for over a decade.
The cars have been sitting in containers at a Chinese port for some 13 years, untouched and subject to storage chargers that are being paid by the seller. Gruber Motors says the vehicles will be brought back to the US by mid-May unless a sale occurs before then. Further, the seller is “to fly to China to meet any prospective buyers for a viewing”.
All three vehicles apparently have unopened boxes in their respective boots, assumed to be brand new charging cables, and each also has a larger accompanying box believed to be carrying the vehicle’s hard top with carry case.
“What we do not yet know is if the ESS pack Service Plugs were pulled before shipment, and even more intriguing, if they were, is there any life left in the packs after 13 years of storage,” Gruber Motors says in the listing.
“We will not know until they are retrieved and fired up. We also do not know how many, if any miles were on odometers from testing/delivery of new Roadsters.”
“Due to the bizarre nature of this set of brand new Roadsters and collectible status, this owner is accepting bids at this time only, and is trying to sell them as a set, but would entertain splitting them up.”
The first round of bidding lists the set of three for US$50,000 ($74,933) each, totalling US$150,000 ($224,799) for the set.
Alternatively, prospective buyers can bid for the sole red example opening at US$70,000 ($104,906).
If you’re interested in bidding on these Tesla Roadsters, you can email ev@gruber.com. You can also view the original listing here.
2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5
The original Tesla Roadster was the brand’s first vehicle, and was an all-electric sports car based on the Lotus Elise chassis that first launched in 2006.
It was the first street legal series production car to use lithium-ion battery cells as well as the first production EV to offer a range of more than 200 miles (320km) between charges.
All variants used a 53kWh battery pack, though outputs went from 185kW in the original to 215kW in its final years. Later iterations were capable of completing the 0-100 dash in under 4.0 seconds.
A second-generation Roadster was presented to the public by Elon Musk in 2017, boasting bold claims of a 1.9s 0-100 sprint, a 400km/h top speed and 1000km of range – alas, it’s still unclear when it will hit production, after originally being slated for a 2020 release.
MORE: Everything Tesla
