We first saw the new Tesla Roadster in November 2017, still as a prototype. At the time, Elon Musk pointed the release date of the production model to 2020.
Well, it's 2020, and although the year is not yet halfway through, we can already move forward, for sure, that the new Tesla Roadster will not see the light of day this year — the Semi, its electric truck, known at the same event , was also pushed to 2021, after the promise of starting delivery in 2019.
That's what we can immediately take from Musk's second visit to the popular Joe Rogan podcast (his host, has a career as a comedian and was a former UFC commentator). Musk's first visit to Rogan's podcast was infamous, if you recall, for smoking marijuana during the show.
Rogan asked Musk when he could buy the new Roadster, to which Tesla's CEO responded that he couldn't name a date — there are other priorities, according to Musk:
“The Roadster is like a dessert. (First) we have to eat meat, potatoes and vegetables and stuff…”
Elon Musk said that, for now, the priorities are to ensure the progressive increase in the Model Y's production, and to move forward and complete the construction of the new Gigafactory in Berlin, Germany.
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And even after all this is concluded, Musk thinks that, before the Roadster, priority should be given to the development and commercialization of Cybertruck (much more vital to the sustainability of the American manufacturer).
Bearing in mind that the expected release date for Tesla Cybertruck is only at the end of 2021, pushes the launch of the new Tesla Roadster to, at best, 2022… if not more.
The new Tesla Roadster
If you remember correctly, the new Tesla Roadster has promised to be one of the fastest cars on the planet. The specs announced by Elon Musk in 2017 are still remarkable today, regardless of whether it's an electric or not.
Musk promises 250 mph, or 402 km/h , an unprecedented value for a production electric vehicle — the current record, for an electric vehicle approved for public roads, is 340 km/h. The remaining performance figures are… ballistic: 1.9s in 0-96 km/h (60 mph), 160 km/h reached in just 4.2s and the traditional quarter mile in 8.8s!
Numbers that can even be reached with the help of… rockets! We're not kidding… Elon Musk announced in 2018 an optional package for the new Roadster called SpaceX, in allusion to his aerospace company. The announced package consists of the installation of 10 rockets around the car, which, thanks to the use of compressed air, allow “a dramatic improvement in acceleration, maximum speed, braking and handling in corners”.
Surprising is also the promised autonomy value, more than 1000 km , guaranteed by 200 kWh batteries, double the capacity of those we can find in the current Model S and Model X.
The specs are impressive, but it looks like we'll have to wait a few more years until this electric super or hyper sports car proves in practice everything it promises in theory.
Until then, we've already seen several electric hypercars being unveiled and practically starting production. They also promise surprising numbers: Lotus Evija, Pininfarina Batista and Rimac C-Two are just around the corner.
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