Elon Musk has taken to X (formally Twitter) to announce that the long-awaited second generation Tesla Roadster will be unveiled in production form later this year, with shipping starting in 2025.
Musk said on the social platform: “Tonight, we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster. There will never be another car like this, if you could even call it a car.” Much of the reference here surrounds its claimed – and altogether unhinged – performance figures.
Back in 2017, when Musk first announced his intentions to release another Tesla-badged sports car, he said the company was aiming for a 0-60mph acceleration time of just 1.9 seconds and a top speed in excess of 250mph. Lofty targets that seem even more unimaginable when you consider Tesla's CEO also claimed a range of 620 miles on a single charge.
Now, Musk has reduced that 0-60mph sprint time to under one second thanks to input from SpaceX. He said: “SpaceX option package for new Tesla Roadster will include ~10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around car. These rocket engines dramatically improve acceleration, top speed, braking & cornering. Maybe they will even allow a Tesla to fly”.
Currently, the world’s fastest accelerating electric car is the Rimac Nevera, which will smash the 0-62mph time (the 2mph discrepancy is in the European standard of 0-100km/h) in just 1.95 seconds. A feat that hasn’t yet been beaten by something with battery packs and electric motors.
Ambitious ambitions
Back in 2017, Musk originally stated that he was aiming for a price tag of between $200,000 (around £158,000 / AU$308,000) and $250,000 (around £198,000 / AUS$385,000), which is incredibly cheap given that Rimac charges $2.5million (around £2m / $AU$3.85m) for entry to that sort of performance club.
Of course, Tesla benefits from the economies of scale element, but we imagine introducing things like rocket thrusters can't be gentle on the bottom line. In addition to this, Musk has also previously suggested launch dates of 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024, citing numerous production and supply chain issues as excuses for not going live with the project.
Exactly the same thing happened with Cybertruck, which also experienced numerous delays and speed bumps on its road to general sale.
Whatever the eventual on-sale date, we can likely expect a glitzy event to celebrate recent news, with Musk claiming on X: “I think it has a shot at being the most mind-blowing product demo of all time”. Let’s just hope he isn’t being too literal.
