When you think of the term “barn find,” it’s fairly typical for images of disused MGs and Porsches to start bubbling up through your imagination. Car enthusiasts often dream of sweeping up the near-mythical sports car everyone forgot about for a song and dance, and then getting it back on the road for the sake of enjoyment. While today’s barn find still comes in an open-topped, two-seat form, these cars have their feet planted firmly in the digital era. Three allegedly brand-new 2010 Tesla Roadsters were recently found in shipping containers, and they’re up for grabs through Roadster specialist Gruber Motor Company.
The story goes that three Tesla Roadsters were purchased brand-new by a Chinese customer, shipped to China, and then forgotten about. According to Gruber Motor Company, “They have been sitting in sea containers, at a port, since 2010, untouched, acquiring storage charges.” While the seller is reportedly paying off the storage charges, don’t expect the cars to be easy to recommission.
So, let’s take a closer look at the cars. The three roadsters in question are VINs 1107, 1120, and 1146: A 2010 Roadster Sport in Radiant Red, a 2010 Roadster Sport in Very Orange, and a 2010 Roadster Base in Very Orange, respectively. Granted, visual condition is a bit difficult to make out because if I had a dollar for every pixel in these photos, I’d have 25 cents. Still, the leather-wrapped dashboards don’t seem to be lifting, the paint looks to be in okay shape, and the cars all allegedly come with stuff.
Each Roadster reportedly comes with a small box in the car which is likely charging equipment, along with a big box alongside each car which could be their respective hardtops. The Sport got slightly quicker acceleration than the base model with a claimed zero-to-60 mph time of 3.7 seconds vs 3.9 seconds, but that seems to be largely theoretical in this case. See, modern EV barn finds are unlike combustion-powered barn finds for one big reason: Battery packs discharge over time.
While combustion-powered cars that have been dormant for years may be able to start after spinning over their engines and hooking up fresh fuel, and crap-era EVs just need their lead-acid batteries replaced, the sophisticated lithium-ion packs of modern EVs are a very different proposition. Not only do they lose charge just sitting, go long enough without plugging them into the mains and you may be left with useless cells. These battery packs can also be incredibly expensive to replace if they’re well and truly bricked. InsideEVs reports that a replacement Roadster battery pack costs $32,000, and these packs seem to be unobtanium as Tesla reportedly stopped selling them in 2019.
As we touched on earlier today, the past decade or so’s crop of EVs might be difficult to keep on the roads as classics due to the potential of battery pack supply drying up completely. While I wouldn’t be surprised if third-party battery packs for some popular older EVs start cropping up soon, specialty models like the Tesla Roadster might be left out in the cold.
Right now, all three of these Roadsters are expensive gambles. Gruber Motor Company says to expect all three cars to be bricked, which means they’re most likely some very expensive paperweights. However, I reckon that not all is lost, and that whoever buys these just needs to find three more ropey Roadsters. If these were truly parked when new, the bodies and suspension components and all that jazz should be in good shape. All they theoretically need in terms of major components are battery packs out of totaled Roadsters to be great runners again. A new lease on life is possible, but likely only if suitable organ donors are found. Regardless, all three Roadsters are reportedly headed to the states by the middle of May if a local buyer isn’t found in China, which gives plenty of time to ponder: What do you do with modern EV barn finds?
(Photo credits: Gruber Motor Company)
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Hear me out on this one. Let’s do a swap on one and drop in an ICE motor! The car is already based on the Lotus Elise, but stretched, so Exige V6 motor???
That was the first thing that crossed my mind, too. Barn find ICEs without engines are an opportunity to resto-mod, and EVs may be shoehorned into that angle by necessity. Can’t get a battery pack? Don’t bother!
YouTube clickbait. See how many potato-batteries it would take to fire one up. Title it “Spuds MaCanHe?”
I’ll see myself out.
Convert back into Lotus Elises?
I was going to say “LS SWAP!” but Elise swap is even better.
it’s a toyota 2GR, so “CAMRY SWAP!”
I could just never bring myself to think of the Exige as truly exotic because of this. Yes, great engine, but… Camry. Supercharged, yes, but… Camry. Was there any exciting Toyota this engine went into? I see something called a TRD Aurion on Wikipedia?
The TRD Aurion…an Australia only model, basically a Camry with different front and rear ends. And a supercharged V6 of course.
They made 500 or so of them, and claimed at the time that it was the most powerful FWD production car ever made. Not sure that’s something to brag about.
From all accounts it was actually a good thing though, quite quick for it’s time (0-60 in 6sec) and looked alright, but no one bought them.
Chassis is already stretched, the V6 Exige/Evora engine should fit now.
Three fun jobs for Rich Rebuilds! No problem! SSDD.
What an interesting gamble! Very risky indeed, but what cool prizes!
Lithium ion self-discharge is bad, but I’ve revived some very old (about 5 years of sitting on the shelf unused) lithium ion laptop batteries. So there’s a slight chance these will run at lowered capacity if charged.
I’m also pretty sure a good electrical technician could reverse engineer enough of the powertrain if you needed to use someone else’s cells or packs. That certainly adds more cost to the equation.
I expect these will go for more than would interest me though.
What would anyone do with three partially assembled Lotus Elise with redundant EV conversions? Fix them obviously!!
The answer is obvious….LS Swap ’em. An ICE Conversion. To hell with progress.
VW bug swap and then Gambler 500.
Launch them into space, obviously.
if money were not an issue, I would say swap a model S Plaid drivetrain and battery.
If I managed to get all three magically, I’m selling one to pay for the repairs on the other two, then restoring one as a perfect example of an original roadster, and keeping it as a museum piece and then swapping in a plaid battery and rear motors into another and having heaps of fun with that!
Dump the batteries and shove a Rover K-Series in there
Repeat the success of the Falcon Heavy by strapping all three into the first Starship intended to go to orbit and return.
Well, they’ll be worth nearly nothing if the replacement batteries aren’t “numbers matching”.
How hard are the battery packs to remove? Asking for a friend with a chainsaw.
Comment of the month here!
Is lithium poisoning a thing ?
I’d have Tesla upgrade them with their OEM aerodynamic pieces and new batteries.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15359042/tesla-roadster-upgrades-include-new-battery-aero-mods-increased-range/
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1104981_tesla-roadster-3-0-340-mile-battery-upgrade-now-shipping
I would imagine that’s the battery mentioned in the article that is no longer for sale. I could be wrong though.
If that’s the case, time to swap in some Model 3 parts. 56 kWh of Model 3 batteries and a Model 3 motor could result in the same battery capacity as the original Roadster, almost the same power, but it would lose about 500 lbs. Efficiency and range would improve significantly.
A 2,150 lb Tesla Roadster with a 56 kWh pack, 241 horsepower, and aerodynamic improvements would be really nice. It would have less power, but the weight reduction would more than make up for it. Might do 0-60 mph in around 3 seconds like that.
Tow them to a large empty parking lot and preemptively set them on fire and get it over with.
…did the containers come with a confused assistant trapped inside?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-trd_f6j3eI
No Jared, no dice.
K-Swap them
I would sell them to a Tesla-stan at a ridiculous price. And then use said money to buy a NSX Type S. Or weed, who knows.
Why not a NSX and some weed?
Strap a homemade rocket to one and see how far you can get it in to space?
Find a few wrecked Model 3’s and start swapping. Or go hit up CATL for some new cells. These packs aren’t structural and are assembled in modules. It won’t be cheap but it’s definitely doable.
Certainly not bricks. Old unsafe battery packs sitting in a storage container in the salty seaside air. I’m thinking unexploded ordnance. You know they are shot because that cat didnt buy them for resale. But found out SOL so resell. Hey China might just end up getting a poor knockoff like everything from China.
Three of the best looking Teslas you’ll ever see.
I have a big soft spot for the Roadsters, not gonna lie. They’re so damn cute! And tiny! And tiny and cute! They’re kinda fun to drive, too—definitely not the same experience as the Lotus they’re based on, but still plenty nimble.
You do need to keep them charged for that whole “unobtanium old battery” reason, though.
Dibs on the orange Sport brick?
All yours Stef!
Three of the besf Teslas you will never see running
The obvious answer is take them to Cars and Coffee in 2048.