Tesla Roadster prototype up for auction starting at $1 million
"A million dollar Tesla may be crazy ... "
Tesla's Roadster is a seminal electric car, but it's not exactly a vintage model -- it first went on sale in 2008. So how does user "Jester944" justify the $1 million minimum bid for a Roadster prototype in his eBay auction? "A million dollar Tesla may be crazy today but ... imagine what the first Ferrari prototype models would go for. Take that 30 years into the future when most cars are electric and they'll be able to trace their history back to Tesla," he says.
That's an interesting sales pitch, but the car (which cost over $100,000 new) does seem like a nice specimen. It's the 32nd prototype out of 33 made, has just 18,000 miles and was never originally sold to the public. The sporty EV comes with a 240V wall charger along with the hard and soft tops, and can still go about 160 miles on a charge, compared to 245 miles when it was brand new. (For $29,000, you can update it to a 70kWh battery with 400 miles of range.)
No one has anted up so far, but there are still five days left -- all Jester944 needs is someone rich and crazy enough to make the first bid. It could pay off, though, if EVs take off like Elon Musk and others expect. In the meantime, here's a video of Musk plunking down $1 million himself for a brand new McLaren F1 back in 1999.
