Feel Old Yet? A Tesla Roadster Might Be a Collectible
Alex Reale
· 3 min read
The traditional stars of the
classic car world
are exactly what you might expect—lots of Ferraris, Aston Martins, and vintage Fords. Basically, any brand that was around to worry about Y2K has a shot to submit an oldie to a collectible auction.Can the 2011
Tesla Roadster
that went up for sale and claimed a decent sum be called a true collectible?
What’s considered a collectible car?
To be considered “historical” in California, the
DMV
requires that the car in question be at least 25 years old. “Classic” or “collectible” labels for cars are more nebulous, but the widely accepted age appears to also be 25 years. So, how did a 10-year-old car wind up on the auction block?The answer has a lot to do with the Tesla brand itself. The release of the original Roadster in 2008 was a major move in the automotive world, according to
Sotheby’s
report from the sale. This stylish car was the first high-performance electric car that operated on a lithium-ion battery, and it really impressed consumers.Since this release, Tesla has only made bigger and bigger waves in the electric vehicle (EV) space and beyond. Now we all wait on tenterhooks for the next move from Elon Musk’s brainchild.
Electric vehicles are new in the collectors’ space
Tesla’s achievements in electric vehicles appear to change the math entirely in the discussion about collectibles. Perhaps waiting the requisite 25 years doesn’t make a ton of sense when the car in question represents an entirely novel area in car-making. The Roadster is a symbol of groundbreaking innovation, and that’s what gives it its collectible value.
On the other hand, the final price of the 2011 Roadster that sold in Sotheby’s auction in Arizona did not impress
MotorTrend
. They noted that the final price of $112,000 was decent, but that Tesla’s older offerings haven’t found “a collectability niche quite yet.” They posit that a secondhand EV is not the most attractive option for collectors of old cars.We might not know enough yet about how electric vehicles age, and the collectible Tesla market is still developing.
Is the Tesla Roadster a collectible?
A 2011 Roadster is undoubtedly a cool and historically significant car. Through the eyes of 2021, which have seen the likes of Rivian R1Ts and Lucid Airs, it might look positively Stone Age. Plus, it made its way into a Sotheby’s auction, which definitely counts for something.
And so, though technically not a collectible, we can conclude that a 2011 Roadster is absolutely collectible. Perhaps collectibility is simply in the eye of the beholder. So go ahead and make that bid.
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