{"id":49815,"date":"2023-05-16T18:35:35","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T22:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=49815"},"modified":"2023-05-16T18:35:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T22:35:35","slug":"tesla-roadster-production-delayed-again-to-2024-four-years-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=49815","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Roadster production delayed again to 2024, four years late"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\"Tesla<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Tesla is planning to finish the design and engineering of the next-generation Tesla Roadster by the end of this year and \u201chopefully\u201d put the vehicle into production next year, according to CEO Elon Musk at Tesla\u2019s shareholder meeting today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The next-generation Roadster was originally announced<\/a> by surprise in 2017 at the Tesla Semi Unveiling event<\/a>. At the time, Tesla said that the car would \u201csmack down\u201d all gasoline-powered cars<\/a> with its superior performance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s promised to do 0-60 in 1.9 seconds, a quarter mile in 8.8 seconds, and have a top speed of 250+ miles per hour and a 200-kWh battery. At the time, we broke down whether these numbers were possible in a speculative technical analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since then, Tesla has released the Model S Plaid, which has some similar performance numbers<\/a> for its 0-60 and quarter-mile time. But it likely would not be as good at track performance because the Roadster will (presumably) be a slimmed-down version of the sedan.<\/p>\n

The Roadster was originally slated to hit the market in 2020 and has been continually pushed back. (The Semi, unveiled at the same event, was supposed to hit the market in 2019 and finally came out late last year<\/a>.) In 2020, the Roadster was pushed back to 2021<\/a>. In 2021, it was delayed until 2022<\/a> and then later delayed until 2023<\/a>, which was confirmed again last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But otherwise, we\u2019ve heard very little about the Roadster, and it hasn\u2019t shown up on any of Tesla\u2019s product roadmaps. Other than that one public statement last year, it didn\u2019t look like the car would hit the road this year, as we haven\u2019t seen much progress.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today, when an investor asked Musk when we might see the car. Musk\u2019s answer was to push back the car another year, to 2024\u2026 \u201chopefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

This mention was a little more detailed than others, so it might actually reflect that this timeline is more concrete than previous timelines. Musk seemed reasonably confident that engineering and design would be completed this year but was less confident of the timeline to start production next year.<\/p>\n

Musk emphasized multiple times that this was a \u201chopeful\u201d timeline and said that \u201cthis is not a commitment\u201d that the car would go into production next year. So stay tuned for more news on whether Tesla will follow through or whether this will be another instance of \u201cElon time.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Musk also made mention of the SpaceX option package, which he has previously stated would allow the car to \u201chover\u201d<\/a> and which Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen has said would make the car an \u201cexciting flying machine.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Since this is a shareholder meeting, Musk mentioned that the car would likely not contribute much to overall company revenue but would perhaps be a \u201cmodest\u201d contributor to profitability. Small production halo cars like this Roadster tend to have higher unit margins, but there are only so many buyers willing to spend $200,000+ on a vehicle.<\/p>\n

But despite this likely lack of profitability, Musk did reiterate today that the car would be \u201csick<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the full exchange, which starts at 1:25:50 in the video:<\/p>\n

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