Tesla: lots more to come

We've just driven the Tesla. And now, so can you. The astonishing electric supercar is on sale in Europe, with the first orders expected to arrive next spring.

You'd better be quicksharp, though - Europe will get just 250 Roadsters for 2009, and Tesla's Darryl Siry tells us that 50 of them have already been snapped up.

"Companies would pay millions for our list of potential customers," he told us. "We've got some big names in there..."

Though the Roadster was originally tipped to get a two-speed gearbox, Tesla has instead switched to a slick 'single gear reduction transmission', which gives 0-60 performance of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 125mph.

It's not coming cheap, though as Europe's Teslas will be solely top-spec editions.

There's better news for the rest of us, though. By 2010, Tesla will be building around 1000 Roadsters in Europe, and it'll be joined by a four-door saloon.

Codenamed 'Model S', we're told that the design is near-complete and that it should hit 60mph in under six seconds. It should be cheaper than the Roadster, too.

Tesla has also hinted that it could build a coupe, hatchback, crossover and SUV on the Model S's architecture - as well as a racing version of the Roadster (oh yes) but has stressed that these are only potential ideas at this stage.

However, with Furai designer Franz von Holzhausen recently signed up, we'd imagine Tesla will be keeping him busy.

This electric future might not be all bad, y'know...