Three Tesla Roadsters Left Abandoned for 13 Years... Bids Exceed 900 Million Won

Tesla's First Electric Car Model... Found at a Chinese Dockyard

Three Tesla Roadsters, the company's first electric car model, were recently found inside an abandoned container at a Chinese port and put up for online auction.

On the 9th (local time), German electric vehicle media Electrive and other foreign outlets reported that Tesla repair specialist company Gruber Motor Company is brokering the sale of these vehicles.

According to reports, these Tesla vehicles were purchased by a Chinese businessman in 2010 and shipped to China, but for some reason, they were left abandoned at the port for 13 years.

Tesla's first electric car model, the 'Roadster'. [Image source=Gruber Motor Company]

Later, the current owner who acquired the vehicles requested Gruber Motor Company to broker the sale. The current owner hopes to sell all three at once.

The three Roadsters put up for online auction recorded a highest bid of $700,000 (approximately 925 million KRW) as of the 8th. Previously, a used car of the same model was sold last year for $295,000 (approximately 390 million KRW). Therefore, the bid price for the three is expected to rise further.

As this news spread through social networking services (SNS), Tesla CEO Elon Musk also commented on SNS on the 3rd, saying, "Roadsters are becoming increasingly rare."

[Image source=Elon Musk Twitter]

The CEO of Gruber Motor Company also said, "We will check the battery performance of these vehicles at the end of this month," adding, "These Roadsters seem more suitable for display in a museum rather than being owned by wealthy investors."

Meanwhile, the Roadster, launched in 2008, was Tesla's first electric car model, with about 2,500 units sold in over 30 countries. Later, Tesla decided to discontinue the Roadster in January 2012 to focus on the new electric car Model S. The Roadster was equipped with a 56-kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery, allowing it to travel approximately 390 km on a single charge.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.