The Tesla Roadster seems to be quietly disappearing after years of delay. is it ever going to be made?
I’ll have jinxed it with Betteridge’s Regulation of Headlines, which suggests any headline ending in a query mark could be answered with “no.”
The prototype for the next-generation Tesla Roadster was first unveiled in 2017, and it was supposed to come back into manufacturing in 2020, nevertheless it has been delayed yearly since then.
It was presupposed to get 620 miles (1,000 km) of vary and speed up from 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds.
It has grow to be a form of working joke, and there are doubts that it’ll ever come to market regardless of Tesla’s promise of dozens of free new Roadsters to Tesla homeowners who participated in its referral program years in the past.
Tesla makes use of the promise of free Roadsters to assist generate billions of {dollars} price of gross sales, which Tesla homeowners delivered, however the automaker by no means delivered on its a part of the settlement.
Moreover, many individuals positioned deposits starting from $50,000 to $250,000 to order the car, which was presupposed to hit the market 5 years in the past.
The official timelines from Tesla are fairly ineffective at this level since they haven’t caught to any of them, however the newest official one dates again to July 2024 when CEO Elon Musk stated this:
“With respect to Roadster, we’ve accomplished many of the engineering. And I believe there’s nonetheless some upgrades we wish to make to it, however we anticipate to be in manufacturing with Roadster subsequent yr. Will probably be one thing particular.”
He stated that Tesla had accomplished “many of the engineering”, however he initially stated the engineering could be performed in 2021 and that was already 3 years after the prototype was unveiled and a yr after it was presupposed to be in manufacturing:
Musk commented on the Roadster once more in October 2024, however he didn’t reiterate the 2025 timeline. As a substitute, he known as the brand new Roadster “the cherry on the icing on the cake.”
Tesla’s management has been nearly silent concerning the new Roadster since. Two Tesla executives even needed to be reminded concerning the Roadster by Jay Leno after they “forgot” about it when itemizing upcoming new Tesla autos with tri-motor powertrain.
There was one small replace concerning the Roadster in Tesla’s monetary outcomes final month.
The automaker has a desk of all its car manufacturing, and the Roadster was up to date from “in growth” to “design growth” within the desk:
It’s not clear if that’s progress or Tesla is simply rephrasing it. Both method, it’s not “development”, which makes it unlikely that the Roadster goes into manufacturing this yr.
If ever…
Electrek’s Take
It seems like Tesla owes about 80 Tesla Roadsters at no cost to Tesla homeowners who referred purchases, and it owes important reductions on a whole bunch of models.
It’s arduous for me to imagine that Tesla will not be delivering the brand new Roadster as a result of the car program would begin about $100 million within the purple, however at this level, I do not know. It very properly may be the rationale.
Nonetheless, I believe it’s extra probably that Tesla is simply horrible at bringing a number of car packages to market concurrently. Working example: it launched a single new car within the final 5 years.
At this level, I believe it’s extra probably that the Roadster won’t ever occur. It is going to be part of different Tesla merchandise just like the Cybertruck Vary Extender.
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