Things that the original Tesla Roadster had that the new one certainly won't

The upcoming new Tesla Roadster, set to be unveiled after a long wait, will arrive nearly 20 years after the original Roadster—yet it won’t share some defining traits from the 2008-era car. The original Roadster used modified Lotus Elise underpinnings, making it low and relatively light, even if it remained uncomfortable. The first-generation Roadster (2008-2012) relied on a 53 kWh (56 kWh in some versions) battery pack built from roughly 6,831 cylindrical lithium cobalt oxide cells. The new Gen 2 is designed around a much larger 200 kWh structural pack. It will also lean heavily on a central touchscreen rather than analog controls.