Tesla’s second-generation electric Roadster sports car will be unveiled in 2024 – and the production-ready two-seater will be astronomically fast, according to Elon Musk.
The US EV maker’s CEO announced on
Musk further stated that “there will never be another car like this” and that the incredible acceleration will be “the least interesting part” of the Roadster.
Could the Tesla Roadster be the fastest accelerating road car of all time? Elon Musk estimates he can reach 60 miles per hour in less than ONE SECOND
In a series of posts on the social media platform, the Tesla frontman said: ‘Tonight we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster.
“There will never be another car like this, if you could even call it a car.”
He added that it will be developed as part of a collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX, with the “production design” to be completed and unveiled at the end of this year, with the aim of reaching customer deliveries in 2025.
He previously claimed that an optional rocket thruster package, developed in conjunction with Telsa’s spacecraft project, would propel it to 60 mph in 1.1 seconds.
“I think it has a chance to be the most stunning product demonstration of all time,” he added.
The bold statement about the potential performance of the next Roadster would be a significant leap forward from the original specifications set for the convertible Tesla when plans were originally released in 2017.
The CEO of Tesla made a number of bold statements about the Roadster 2 in a series of X (formerly Twitter) posts on Wednesday
The CEO of the American EV maker announced on X that the team developing the Roadster has “radically higher design goals” for the sporty electric vehicle
The fastest accelerating production car in the world is currently the electric hypercar Rimac Nevera. It can sprint to 60mph from a standstill in 1.85 seconds, but that will cost more than £2 million
Croatia’s electric hypercar is so incredibly fast that it holds 23 different acceleration records, all set in one day last May
Musk further stated that “there will never be another car like this” and that the incredible acceleration will be “the least interesting part” of the Roadster.
As the second generation Tesla Roadster was originally reported to cost around £200,000, this would be a tenth of the price of the Rimac Nevera.
About seven years ago, Musk said he could sprint to 60 mph from a standstill in 1.9 seconds.
He had also claimed that the car would reach 100mph in just 2.3 seconds and have a top speed of 250mph.
And the quoted range was just as striking, with Musk hinting at a distance of 1,000 kilometers between charges.
If the Roadster is to reach the Tesla CEO’s stated target of 0-60mph, the EV could take the crown as the world’s fastest accelerating road car.
That mantle is currently held by the £2m electric Rimac Nevera, which takes 1.85 seconds to reach 60mph.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk pictured unveiling Roadster 2 during a presentation in Hawthorne, California, on November 16, 2017. He said at the time that first deliveries would arrive in 2020
In 2017, Musk claimed the Roadster 2 could reach 60 mph from a standstill in 1.9 seconds.
He had also claimed in 2017 that the car would reach 160 kmph in 4.2 seconds and have a top speed of 400 kmph.
Although Musk claims in his latest series of posts that the Roadster 2 could be delivered to customers in 2025, he has previously indicated that it will be available for 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
While Musk’s latest X statement will have Tesla fans frothing, others will suggest it’s just another case of an unwarranted comment from the controversial character.
He has previously hinted that the Roadster will be available to customers as early as 2020, and has pushed back that delivery date several times in a delayed timeline of 2022, 2023 and 2024.
This came after Musk launched a cherry red Tesla Roadster into space on February 6, 2018, as part of a stunt for SpaceX’s first test launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket.
The Tesla Roadster concept shown in January 2018 – a month before it was blasted into orbit aboard the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
The ‘Starman’ model was at the wheel of the Tesla Roadster before it took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on February 6, 2018
The cherry-red Roadster – loaded with the space-capable Starman – could crash into Earth within the next million years
Later in 2018, SpaceX confirmed that the car had zoomed past Mars during its space travels
This still image, taken from a SpaceX livestream video, shows “Starman” sitting in SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s cherry red Tesla roadster, following the Falcon Heavy rocket
Musk has previously blamed the supply chain for the extended timeline for the arrival of the second-generation Roadster, also attributing the delay to the continued development of Tesla’s three-motor powertrain and improvements to battery technology.
While Musk commented on the performance of the sports car, he left out the price.
In 2017, he said the Roadster would cost around $250,000 (about £190,000 at the time), which is a tenth of the price of Rimac’s Nevera EV hypercar.
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