Tesla’s Roadster reveal finally happened on Thursday evening at SpaceX’s Rocket Development and Testing facility in Waco, Texas, two weeks after the original 1 October date. The company blamed weather at the demo site for the delay. What it showed bore little resemblance to the 2017 promise of 620 miles of range and a 1.9-second sprint to 60 mph.
The demo
The wedge-shaped Roadster approached an inverted half roller-coaster ramp, climbed part of the way held to the surface by a vacuum fan system, then launched off upside down. In the air it flipped, used air thrusters to right itself and landed on the tarmac. A second run had it jumping over several Teslas, a Semi among them, inverting and again using thrusters to touch down, which Yahoo Finance described as an automaker first.
“Well, it worked,” Elon Musk said, deadpan.
Three versions
Tesla listed three configurations. Performance is the road-ready two-seater with a multi-mode suction system. Thrust is a race-ready two-seater adding rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters. Rocket is a single-seater with thrusters around its perimeter for forward, upward and lateral movement, and yes, it can fly.
Official 0-60 mph figures were under 1.6 seconds for Performance, under 0.9 for Thrust and under 0.59 for Rocket. At the event a test run clocked 0.81 seconds. Tesla said all three exceed 300 miles of range, with a top speed up to 230 mph for the Rocket. Musk said the production car could target Mach 0.5, about 383 mph. Production, he said, starts in 2028.
The detail that matters for buyers: the Performance version needs a $5,000 deposit and a $45,000 wire transfer within 10 days, Thrust asks for a $250,000 deposit, and Rocket is invite-only with no price released. Nobody explained how the flying version would be allowed on public roads.
Nine years of waiting
Tesla showed the second-generation Roadster in 2017 at the Semi event, promising a 620-mile range from a 200kWh battery, a 1.9-second 0-60 time and 2020 deliveries. Reservations then required $50,000. Musk later said production would begin in 2022. It did not.
Henry Catchpole, host of Hagerty’s “The Driver’s Seat”, who attended, said what happened in Texas far exceeded expectations. How it translates into a usable road car, he added, remains to be seen.
Sources
- ‘Something extraordinary’: Tesla Roadster wows with compressed air thrusters for limited flight
- Tesla Roadster reveal live: Updates from the launch of the next-gen sportscar – Engadget
- Surprise: There's A New Tesla Roadster With 620 Miles Of Range – Jalopnik
