With all due respect, can you support that assertion? I didn’t hear anything about it in the podcast.
Business Insider interviewed Eberhard in 2023 and printed, flat out, multiple times, with direct attribution, that Eberhard has the second Roadster ever made. They even ran a second article claiming such in the headline.
They claim that Elon Musk got the first production unit, which matches what he claimed on Jay Leno’s show:
For the last couple of months there has been an ongoing discussion on various sites (including our own) about the status of Martin Eberhard’s Tesla Roadster. For those just now tuning in to this little saga, Eberhard was the co-Founder of Tesla Motors, and was supposed to get production car #2 but at least three other cars have now been delivered ahead of his car.
You can also find this clearly stated in Eberhard’s complaint in the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo (Case Number CIV484400, filed 26 May 2009), which you can download here at the court’s public access portal. Paragraph 6 specifies that “…Eberhard entered into a written contract with Tesla Motors to receive the second Roadster off of the production line…” and that Tesla, Inc (at that point led by Musk) “…deliberately breached its agreement with Eberhard and gave this one-of-a-kind car to a different customer and a friend of Musk.” The lawsuit was eventually dismissed but none of the substantive facts in the complaint were disputed, just that they somehow did not comprise a breach of contract.
I have not been able to find a record of the specific serial or VIN number for Eberhard’s vehicle but there were at least two other vehicles after the first Roadster delivered (various sources including the Autoblog post referenced above), and the treatment of Eberhard (and Marc Tarpenning who left shortly after Eberhard was forced out) was widely discussed in the 2008-9 period when Tesla kept stringing investors and would-be owners who put down payments down for a car that was continually delayed and then demonstrated far less than advertised performance and reliability issues when it was finally delivered.
I do have to acknowledge an error, though; I mistakenly conflated Musk’s car, which was actually the first Roadster off of the production line (and which Eberhard allegedly had an original verbal claim to as one of the actual founders of Tesla, Inc), and the second production item which was promised to Eberhard in his separation agreement with Tesla, Inc. The second Tesla Roadster off the production line was not the one that Musk launched into space on the inaugural Falcon Heavy launch, but as noted in the complaint was delivered to a friend of Musk’s, specifically Antonio. Gracias (Financial Times link, sorry no guest access) who is a private equity investor being Valor Equity Partners which made early investments in Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity. So, mea culpa on that issue.
Thank you. I read the complaint and skimmed the rest of the record. A more detailed allegation is given in paragraph 121:
Eberhard learned, however, that in breach of its agreement with Eberhard, in early February 2008, Tesla Motors had already built and sold the second - and maybe the third and the fourth - production Roadster for a customer(s) prior to building Eberhard’s Roadster, which was supposed to be the second vehicle off the line. Tesla Motors sold the second production roadster, intended for Eberhard, to a friend of Musk, Antonio Gracias, in blatant breach of its written agreement with Eberhard.
This was then incorporated into the second count of the fourth cause of action, breach of contract for giving Eberhard the wrong car (and wrecking it, too). The case was settled before Tesla fully responded to that count, however.
I would say it’s possible that Eberhard really did get the second production unit, but due to the possibly intentional wreck during the “test drive”, his was the fourth or fifth delivered. But I agree, it is more likely that Tesla gave away the second unit to Gracias (as reported by The Financial Times) and gave Eberhard some other car.
