Photo: Jahangir Gharamanov via Instagram
Let's face it, Tesla broke the Internet a little when it first announced the second-gen Roadster. Granted, the presentation used a little bit of data manipulation (everyone remembers that torque figure, right?) and we're way past the promised release date (starting to count in years), but the all-electric supercar did catch everyone's attention, even if only for a brief amount of time.
With cars such as the Model S Plaid and the Rimac Nevera, it's easy to understand why the promise of a very fast battery-powered car will make people giddy – it's because quick EVs tend to be really, really quick. In fact, it seems like it's more difficult to make a slow electric car than one that's at least decently sprightly off the line.
With the Roadster's production pushed back to 2023 now (a delay of roughly three years, and we're not dealing with any certainties as it is), that leaves a lot of time for any company looking to come up with a rival, if they so wished. The Rimac Nevera will arrive shortly, but that's a much more expensive machine that, judging by what we've been told so far about Tesla's sports car, doesn't really sit in the same boat as the Roadster.
Who else is out there? Well, one of the brands in the Volkswagen Group could lay a claim (Porsche and Audi, most likely), but those models would also command a much higher price than the $200,000 advertised for the Roadster. However, with the entry-level Model Y costing $60,000, it's hard to imagine Tesla would still keep being able to sell the upcoming sports car for the promised price.
From a technological point of view, it looks like Lucid Motors could offer an alternative, but with the budding company still sorting out its production capabilities and only having delivered a few cars, thinking about competing with the Roadster might resemble putting the cart before the horses. Still, given the attractive design of the Air, it's worth toying a little with the idea of what such a car would look like.
An independent designer called Jahangir Gahramanov did just that, and the picture you see above contains the various sketches he came up with. It looks like he went straight for the Bugatti Chiron-like hypercar approach, suggesting not even this Lucid would square up directly against the Roadster.
Yes, we're only looking at sketches made by a designer with no affiliations to Lucid Motors, but if you think about it, as far as we know, Tesla might not be that far ahead with the development of the Roadster either. So what if it has working prototypes? They could very well be built on a Model S chassis, and Lucid has that too with the Air. Building a new bodywork to go with it shouldn't take too long.
We know nothing about the real-world specs of the Roadster prototypes. All we know is that they can accelerate pretty fast, but so can a Model S if you put two large motors since you can't be bothered about range and the likes. Building fancy prototypes isn't the hard part but sticking to a timeline.
Looking at Jahangir's five proposals, it's pretty difficult to pick one. We like the overall aspect of the bottom one, but after a year of making fun of the BMW 4-Series' grille, we're not so sure about that big, gaping air vent. Give it a normal (by hypercar standards) bumper, and we might have a winner.
However, we'd like to know which one you would prefer. And since we've reached the questions section, here is another one: what do you think Lucid Motors should call a model like this? Well, if the company was to mimic Tesla and go for a tacky naming scheme, "Fire" would probably make the most sense since it's the most aggressive of the four elements. "Earth" would actually be a decent name for an SUV, whereas "Water" leaves an open door for expanding the business into boat-making.
With the Roadster's production pushed back to 2023 now (a delay of roughly three years, and we're not dealing with any certainties as it is), that leaves a lot of time for any company looking to come up with a rival, if they so wished. The Rimac Nevera will arrive shortly, but that's a much more expensive machine that, judging by what we've been told so far about Tesla's sports car, doesn't really sit in the same boat as the Roadster.
Who else is out there? Well, one of the brands in the Volkswagen Group could lay a claim (Porsche and Audi, most likely), but those models would also command a much higher price than the $200,000 advertised for the Roadster. However, with the entry-level Model Y costing $60,000, it's hard to imagine Tesla would still keep being able to sell the upcoming sports car for the promised price.
From a technological point of view, it looks like Lucid Motors could offer an alternative, but with the budding company still sorting out its production capabilities and only having delivered a few cars, thinking about competing with the Roadster might resemble putting the cart before the horses. Still, given the attractive design of the Air, it's worth toying a little with the idea of what such a car would look like.
An independent designer called Jahangir Gahramanov did just that, and the picture you see above contains the various sketches he came up with. It looks like he went straight for the Bugatti Chiron-like hypercar approach, suggesting not even this Lucid would square up directly against the Roadster.
Yes, we're only looking at sketches made by a designer with no affiliations to Lucid Motors, but if you think about it, as far as we know, Tesla might not be that far ahead with the development of the Roadster either. So what if it has working prototypes? They could very well be built on a Model S chassis, and Lucid has that too with the Air. Building a new bodywork to go with it shouldn't take too long.
We know nothing about the real-world specs of the Roadster prototypes. All we know is that they can accelerate pretty fast, but so can a Model S if you put two large motors since you can't be bothered about range and the likes. Building fancy prototypes isn't the hard part but sticking to a timeline.
Looking at Jahangir's five proposals, it's pretty difficult to pick one. We like the overall aspect of the bottom one, but after a year of making fun of the BMW 4-Series' grille, we're not so sure about that big, gaping air vent. Give it a normal (by hypercar standards) bumper, and we might have a winner.
However, we'd like to know which one you would prefer. And since we've reached the questions section, here is another one: what do you think Lucid Motors should call a model like this? Well, if the company was to mimic Tesla and go for a tacky naming scheme, "Fire" would probably make the most sense since it's the most aggressive of the four elements. "Earth" would actually be a decent name for an SUV, whereas "Water" leaves an open door for expanding the business into boat-making.
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