Tesla to Unveil Redesigned Roadster After Years of Anticipation
On Thursday, Tesla is expected to present the revamped version of its Roadster, an electric sports car first teased nearly nine years ago.
The automaker initially showcased a prototype of this $200,000 vehicle in 2017, promising to start deliveries by 2020.
As for the price, it remains unchanged, but prospective buyers need to put down a $50,000 reservation fee.
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has described the Roadster as not being crucial to the company’s bottom line. In 2023, he referred to it as a “small potato situation” that wouldn’t greatly impact finances.
Despite its limited financial significance, high-performance luxury sports cars like the Roadster often highlight a company’s technological prowess.
According to analyst Seth Goldstein from Morningstar, Tesla currently lacks a flagship model that showcases its best engineering; he believes the new Roadster will fulfill that role.
Musk previously mentioned that this next-gen Roadster would have a remarkable range—620 miles on a single charge. However, he indicated in a recent post that the car had undergone some redesigns.
In his update, Musk claimed the new model would achieve 0 to 60 miles per hour in under one second, adding that this was “the least interesting part” of the vehicle, which has been developed in conjunction with SpaceX.
Goldstein anticipates Tesla will sell around 2,000 Roadsters each year, a mere drop in the bucket compared to the 1.6 million vehicles sold last year.
The original Roadster was released in 2008 and remained available until 2012. It was Tesla’s first electric vehicle, built on the chassis of a Lotus Elise, and it laid the groundwork for later models like the Model Y, Model X, Model S, and Model 3.
The introduction of this second-generation Roadster comes during Tesla’s pivot toward artificial intelligence technology, particularly for self-driving capabilities and robotics.
Interestingly, Tesla has halted sales of Model S and Model X cars to allocate resources for the production of its Optimus humanoid robots.
Additionally, the company has introduced Cybercab, a two-seater robotaxi devoid of traditional manual controls.
Tesla plans to host the unveiling event for the next-generation Roadster at a SpaceX test facility in McGregor, Texas, starting at 8:55 p.m. ET on Thursday.
