The EV first debuted in 2017 and has been repeatedly delayed
Elon Musk swears the Tesla Roadster is really coming this time.
The EV maker’s CEO was at it again on his social media platform X on Tuesday night. The executive made several bold claims about the company’s perpetually delayed electric sports car, the second-generation Roadster, including that it will finally start shipping next year.
You’ll have to excuse us for being skeptical, but we’ve been told the Roadster was just a year away more times than we can count at this point. When the sporty EV made its surprise debut during a Tesla Semi event in 2017, the executive said it would be available in 2020. When that year finally rolled around, he said the car would go into production in “12 to 18 months,” though this was understandable due to the beginning of the pandemic. Then, in 2021, he pushed the date back again to 2023. Then last year, it was delayed until 2024, which has now been updated to next year.
Of course, that was far from all Musk wanted to share about the Roadster. He also delivered some updates about what drivers can expect from the EV if it ever arrives.
“Tonight, we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster,” Musk, ever one for understatement, wrote. “There will never be another car like this, if you could even call it a car.”
In a series of posts, Musk revealed that the EV will now be a Tesla and SpaceX co-production. Additionally, he suggested design work is complete and that the finished vehicle could be unveiled before the end of the year. That wasn’t all, though. He also claimed that the new Roadster will accelerate from zero to 60 mph in under a second, “and that is the least interesting part.” If true, that would make Tesla next model the world’s fastest accelerating production vehicle by nearly a half-second over the current record holder, the McMurtry Spéirling.
It’s easy to be dismissive of claims like this, especially since Musk made similar promises about the Cybertruck. The executive made similar paradigm-shifting promises about Tesla’s first pickup, many of which it wasn’t quite able to deliver on. Still, that vehicle has at least gone into limited production, which is more than we can say about the Roadster for the time being.
This story was first published on Robb Report USA
