Tesla Roadsters found in shipping containers had wild fate
- The zero-mile Tesla Roadsters were found in China
- They were allegedly meant to be used for reverse engineering
- Someone has placed a $2 million bid on the final three
Published on Jul 01, 2024 at 8:33 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Jul 02, 2024 at 11:24 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Remember those brand-new Tesla Roadsters discovered in shipping containers in China? The mystery about what they were doing there may well have been discovered.
A $2 million bid has been placed on the final three brand-new, first-gen 2010 Tesla Roadsters in their collection.
And it turns out they were destined to be reverse-engineered.
READ MORE! Elon Musk hints that new Tesla Roadster may fly
After the cars were originally found back in early 2023, we’ve had several updates.
These include the plot twist of billionaire, Dan O’Dowd, who has been publicly critical of Tesla’s self-driving features purchasing three of them.
The pristine units – two orange and one red – were thought to have been sitting there for 13 years.
They’re the last brand-new, completely assembled first-gen Roadsters sold 13 years after they were built.
How did the Tesla Roadsters get there?
Gruber Motors, the shop brokering the deal, it recently received information on the original shipment that led them to where they were found.
The three Roadsters were all intended to be dismantled by an early Tesla competitor in the EV race of the 2010s.
They were en route to an R&D facility for an ’emerging’ Chinese automaker that went bankrupt before the cars even arrived.
“The original purchaser was an R&D center for a Chinese auto company, that subsequently went bankrupt, and the assumption is these were purchased for reverse engineering to be disassembled,” Gruber Motors said in their auction listing.
“In 2010, the Tesla Roadster was after all a state-of-the-art EV, before the Model S even came out, and would have been of enormous value to an emerging EV company.”
The mystery of the shipping containers deepens
Per the investigation by Gruber Motors, the original shipment was actually for four 2010 Tesla Roadsters with VINs 1107, 1120, 1146, and 1185.
While the first three were auctioned, the fourth car is missing in its entirety.
While the chassis was absent, a subsequent shipping container uncovered by Gruber Motors revealed parts that can be traced back to VIN 1185.
These include wheels and tires, a door assembly, headlight assemblies, body parts, trim parts, and other car parts.
Both the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Roadster feature drive-by-wire technology: but what is it and how does it work?
DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie
All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
