California's "green" governor Arnold Schwarzenegger bought one. So did actors George Clooney and Kelsey Grammer.

Tesla Motors opened its first store over the weekend on the Los Angeles coast and has begun taking orders in Europe via the Internet. It plans to show the Roadster off at the Cannes Film Festival this month and at the Monaco Grand Prix and Le Mans auto races.

Thanks to a wimpy dollar and stumbling US economy, the Northern California car maker is focusing on Europe a year ahead of schedule and plans to soon open stores in Paris, London, Munich and other cities there.

"The minute the Roadster was unveiled, we had interest from Europe," Tesla vice president Darryl Siry told AFP during an interview at the new-age car maker's headquarters in the city of San Carlos.

"Europeans are much more advanced in their thinking about issues of sustainability and the idea of having a beautiful sports car that produces zero emissions is very attractive to people."