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 These early cars were eventually withdrawn from the U.S. market.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.
Tesla Model S of vehicles in transit at the end of June 2016 was much higher than expected (5,150 including Model X cars), representing 35.8% of the number of cars delivered in the quarter (14,402 vehicles including the Model X). Deliveries in the third quarter of 2016 totaled 16,047 units, for cumulative sales of 38,231 Model S cars during the first nine months of 2016, allowing the Model S to rank as the world's top selling plug-in car during this period, just ahead of the Nissan Leaf. Global Model S sales passed the 150,000 units in November 2016, four years and five months