All Elon Musk’s Wildest Promises About The Tesla Roadster
One of the most controversial characters in the automotive world, Elon Musk has built a reputation over the years for making outlandish or exaggerated claims. While some of the legendary stunts announced by Musk in the past, such as a first-generation Tesla Roadster being launched into space (more on that later) were very much real, some of his recent claims regarding the model’s upcoming second generation are not always easy to believe.
From flying cars to aliens, it’s becoming hard to distinguish between reality and wishful thinking, and while we don’t doubt the upcoming Roadster will be a very high-performance car, some of these claims can sound just a little too out there. Let’s explore the history of the Roadster and some of the wildest promises Elon Musk has made about the upcoming version.
The Story So Far: Brief History Of The Roadster
The story of the Roadster begins with the first-generation model, the one that started it all. Tesla’s very first vehicle was in production between 2008 and 2012, and it was the first all-electric, highway-legal production car to use lithium-ion battery cells. It also broke records on the driving range front, becoming the first electric vehicle to travel over 244 miles on a single charge.
The first-generation Roadster was based on the Lotus Elise, and there are plenty of similarities between the two at first glance; however, Musk and company are very keen to minimize the connection between the two models. Darryl Siry, then vice president of marketing and sales, wrote in a blog post on the Tesla website that the first-gen Roadster only shares 7% of its parts with the Elise.
In 2018, over half a decade after production had ended, the Roadster ended up in the spotlight again due to a large-scale publicity stunt. Elon Musk, in typically understated fashion, launched a first-gen Roadster from his personal car collection into space, on the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. It then settled into permanent orbit around the sun, with a dummy in astronaut garb (nicknamed “Starman”) behind the wheel. Its real-time location can be tracked on a dedicated website.
A year before the Starman took to the skies, Tesla announced the model’s second generation was on the way. It has taken almost a decade to get here, but it looks like we might finally be seeing some actual new Roadsters out in the wild soon, rather than digital renders or prototypes. In order to build the hype (and, one might cynically say, to keep the Roadster relevant through ten years of delays and issues), Musk has made a number of pretty out-there claims regarding its capabilities and design.
Elon Musk Has Claimed…
It Will Be Released Next Year
The first promise regarding the Roadster to be taken with a pinch of salt is related to its ETA, as Musk has stated the Roadster is due to hit the market next year. However, Tesla has a mile-long track record when it comes to delays and unexpected roadblocks. The journey from concept to factory to customer has been longer than expected for many Tesla models.
The much-hyped Cybertruck encountered countless delays since being unveiled in 2019. Eventually, the very first trucks were delivered at the tail end of 2023. A couple of months later, the facelifted Model 3 also ran into some obstacles on its way to customers’ driveways, with deliveries being pushed forward to the spring. The latest Tesla project that had to readjust its timeline after hitting a roadblock was the Robotaxi, which was due to be revealed at the start of August but is now looking like it won’t make an appearance until October.
The new Roadster has been dragged along for an entire decade after the initial, now long forgotten, announcement by Musk in 2012 promised the model’s second generation would arrive in 2015. This obviously did not materialize, and the new Roadster wasn’t properly introduced as a model until 2017. The first customer deliveries were originally due to arrive in 2020, but a series of delays prevented this from happening, both before and during the Covid pandemic. The target year became 2023, then 2024, and in February this year it was pushed forward even further to 2025. We can only hope Tesla is able to keep this latest promise.
It Will Be Equipped With “Alien Technology” From SpaceX
Aside from Tesla and the X venture, SpaceX is Elon Musk’s other major project, and he is keen to employ technology derived from the aerospace world in his brand’s cars. The Roadster will, apparently, incorporate SpaceX tech (described by Musk as “alien technology” in a moment of poetic license) in the form of rocket thrusters, which will enable its outrageous acceleration. Not long after the new Roadster was announced, Musk discussed offering the SpaceX equipment as an option package. Of course, installing these rocket thrusters requires a decent amount of space, which is why Roadsters equipped with the SpaceX package were originally rumored to require rear seat removal but again, nothing confirmed.
It Will Be Able To Fly
Apparently, the SpaceX rocket thrusters aren’t just there to propel the car horizontally, but they will also allow it to fly. Well, sort of. Musk has hinted (you guessed it, on X) that the Roadster will have the ability, if not to fly, to hover above the ground Back To The Future-style, thanks to “SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultra-high pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats”. Musk has talked about the Roadster’s flying abilities a few more times over the years since, but most of the time he has referred to it as an idea or a concept, rather than something concrete; the jury is still out over whether SpaceX and Tesla actually have the ability to make this happen.
It Will Hit 60 MPH In Less Than A Second
In February this year, Musk, in typical over-the-top fashion, sent out an enigmatic tweet (X?) stating that Tesla had “radically increased the design goals for the new […] Roadster. There will never be another car like this, if you could even call it a car”. After receiving a reply from Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt (who Musk later unfollowed over alleged information leaks) inquiring about the car’s 0-60 time, he followed up with even more hype, stating that the new Roadster would be capable of hitting 60 mph in under one second.
Targeting a 0-60mph time of ~1 second with the fastest spec?
Please tell us this machine is coming soon!
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 28, 2024
This claim later proved to be not quite grounded in reality. The new Roadster will be quick, but likely not that quick. The latest information available indicates a 0-60 time of just under two seconds. There’s still plenty to be excited about, but this particular claim did seem a little too good to be true as even the current record holder for lowest 0-60 time, the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, can “only” accomplish the feat in 1.66 seconds.
What Else Do We Know About The New Roadster?
Honestly? Not that much. We now have projected numbers regarding performance and range, but given Tesla’s track record of slightly exaggerated claims, they are probably best taken with a pinch of salt until we can see them being confirmed in the real world. One thing we know for certain is that it’s going to be expensive; the most expensive Tesla ever built, in fact. The reservation fee alone is $50,000, and the total price is expected to be somewhere between $200,000 and $250,000 for the limited-edition Founders series.
However, when you look at the other cars on the market that can boast similar performance figures, the Roadster is comparatively cheap given that its speed and acceleration place it in the same territory as hypercars, such as the $2 million Rimac Nevera.