Electric car Delco. These early cars were eventually withdrawn from the U.S. market. California electric automaker Tesla Motors began development in 2004 on what would become the Tesla Roadster (2008), which was first delivered to customers in 2008. The Roadster was the first highway legal serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car to travel more than per charge. Tesla global sales passed 250,000 units in September 2017. The Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance achieved the milestone of 500,000 units electric vehicles sold in October 2017. Tesla sold its 200,000th Model S in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Electric car The Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance is the world's leading all-electric vehicle manufacturer. By mid-2018, the Alliance's global all-electric vehicle sales totaled about 600,000 units, including those manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors, now part of the Alliance. Tesla is the second best-selling all-electric vehicle manufacturer with almost 500,000 electric cars delivered worldwide by November 2018. Its Model S was the world's best selling plug-in electric car for two years in a row, 2015 and 2016. The world's all-time top selling highway legal electric car is the Nissan Leaf with global sales of 370,000 units, followed by the Tesla Model S with global sales of