Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, revealed the company plans unveil its second-generation roadster by the end of this year with deliveries starting next year. The Roadster was the first-ever Tesla vehicle, and its replacement was slated to arrive four years ago.
The long-awaited Tesla Roadster is reportedly going in the hands of buyers next year.
Musk, who is notoriously inaccurate about when the company’s new vehicles will be ready, made everyone aware of the coming model via X — formerly Twitter. The soon-to-arrive model was initially revealed in 2017 with a target date for delivery in 2020.
“Tonight, we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster,” Musk said in a post on X. He added that he expects the Roadster’s production design will be completed and unveiled by the end of this year.
The arrival of the Roadster has been delayed a couple of times. After missing the 2020, Musk noted in 2021 that supply chain issues were the cause and it wouldn’t be ready until 2023. When asked last year about it, he was hopeful to begin production this year.
Late once again
The delay of the Roadster isn’t a surprise. Musk’s self-admitted overexuberance about the company’s products has led him to miss the mark on nearly every new vehicle debut for the company — usually by years.
The one he was close to correct about was the Model Y, which is currently the world’s bestselling electric vehicle.
Cybertruck, the company’s latest introduction, arrived four years after its introduction to the public, and two years after he said it would. Not only was it late, but it also costs significantly more, features the usual build quality issues associated with Tesla and is missing some “equipment” important to some truck users: the locking differential.
Fortunately, the last example is a software issue and will be added with an over-the-air update in the future, although no timeframe has been provided and given the accuracy of such predictions, would it matter anyway?
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What are we getting?
Once it arrives sometime next year, the Roadster — which at one point Musk said would use rockets borrowed from SpaceX — will be the fastest production car on the road. Musk made the claim when he revealed the next-gen model and has repeated it several times since.
The Roadster was the first vehicle produced by Tesla and was based off a McLaren.
“The new Tesla Roadster will be the fastest production car ever made. Period,” the South African-born entrepreneur declared in November 2017. “The purpose of this is to give a hardcore smackdown to the gasoline car.”
Right now, the EV maker lays claim to the speed crown as the Tesla Model S Plaid currently gets there in 1.99 seconds. The Roadster, Musk said, will do it in 1.9 seconds — unless the rockets come into play. He said at the time it will race from 0 to 100 mph in just 4.2 seconds, and top out at more than 250 mph.
Just as importantly, the $200K model will do all of that while getting more than 620 miles on a single charge — the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
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