Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to the platform formerly known as Twitter to break some big news about the long-awaited second-generation Tesla Roadster, first shown in 2017 and postponed many times since. Musk has now announced that they've settled upon the Roadster’s final design and that it would be shown at the end of 2024, with even more bonkers performance numbers than previously announced—if they can pull it off.
As if the initial performance specs for the Roadster weren’t enough, Musk has now announced that they have “radically increased the design goals” for the second-generation model. He claims that it will be able to sprint from a standstill to sixty in under one second, although he made no mention of optional thrusters being necessary for the feat.
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Tesla needs some excitement to fill a "gap year"
Investors have been unhappy with Tesla's stock price as the automaker warns of slower growth this year thanks to high interest rates, and a lull in new products until the rumored $25,000 EV can debut. Generating hype for the Roadster may address some of that and put pep back in Tesla's step.
Musk also mentioned that it was a collaborative effort between Tesla and SpaceX, but stopped short of explaining whether he was talking about the car (and its optional cold gas thrusters) or its launch event, which many commenters seem to speculate could see a Tesla Roadster being launched into space; it wouldn’t be the first time, and he does say “it has a shot at being the most mind-blowing product demo of all time,” so the prospect of Spaceman getting a buddy can’t be excluded.
It’s been more than six years since the Roadster concept was unveiled, and almost four years since that passenger ride event that strained everyone’s neck muscles and made them scream out profanities. During this time, Musk has done what he's often very good at—building hype—and he’s also mentioned that they were rethinking and improving the Roadster along the way.
Through his many tweets about the Roadster over the years, he tried to divert attention away from the fact that the company was focusing mostly on other projects (the Cybertruck and the budget Tesla) while still stoking the hype train. But now that the Cybertruck is out and about, and only the $25,000 model is still taking up a big chunk of its R&D resources, it sounds like Tesla has finally removed the Roadster project from the back burner, and we’re finally going to see it this year.
In the original tweet announcing the final Roadster’s unveiling, Musk said, “if you could even call it a car,” hinting that it’s going to be more of a poster vehicle for the company and not a model that will sell en masse (which is why it wasn’t a priority all these years).
If it lives up to the hype, it’s going to be a whiplash-inducing salute to what can be done with current EV tech (and some thruster boost, maybe), and the source for a lot of YouTube videos—we can’t wait to see it drag-raced against a methanol-snorting Top Fuel dragster, which seems like the only thing on wheels capable of matching the Roadster’s new claimed acceleration figure.
Clarification: This story was updated to clarify that the "original Roadster" referenced above meant the concept from 2017, not the first-generation Roadster.
