12 most innovative and eccentric electric cars - Tesla Roadster

Tesla Roadster

The world’s most famous electric-car brand actually has its roots in Norfolk. The original Tesla Roadster was based on the Lotus Elise, but where that car had a four-cylinder petrol engine, the Roadster packed in thousands of what were effectively laptop batteries. It was the first road-legal, series-production car to be powered by lithium-ion batteries – something that’s now commonplace – and the first electric car to be capable of more than 200 miles on a charge. It's also the first production car to be launched into space, thanks to Tesla founder Elon Musk’s sideline in building reusable spacecraft.

The Tesla Roadster was fast, but couldn’t compete with one carmaker from Croatia. Read on to find out more.