Photo: Zack (@BLKMDL3) via Twitter
Who can even remember when the new Roadster was first introduced? Well, if everything else fails, you can always turn to Google, and it'll tell you the electric sports car was unveiled back in November 2017, so it's been nearly four years since people started talking about it.
The Roadster was probably Tesla's best marketing tool. Not only did it raise the company's perceived status dramatically thanks to its mesmerizing data sheet (which included the maximum torque scam, but we'll let that slip), but it was also the top reward in Tesla's referral program - and who wouldn't want to act as the company's sales representative if that meant getting one at a huge discount, or even for free?
Dangling a carrot in front of someone only works as long as the person can't reach the carrot, which is probably one of the reasons the Roadster hasn't been launched so far. Another one is the fact that, unless it'll be assembled in a tent by hand, it will require its own production line. Building one of those for a low-volume vehicle is not financially viable, so not a priority for a company looking to grow.
Finally, that referral program was pretty darn successful, meaning Tesla will have to give quite a few of its sports cars for free and quite a few more for a fraction of their actual price. That's hardly the best incentive to start investing in an expensive new production line.
Of course, all this is nothing but speculation. As per Elon Musk's latest tweet, the new Roadster should reach its happy owners by the end of 2023. The only things that could possibly stand in its way would be 2022 deciding to copy, or even worse, one up 2020.
"2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages, so it wouldn’t matter if we had 17 new products, as none would ship," the message read. "Assuming 2022 is not mega drama, new Roadster should ship in 2023."
Given how the first deadline that saw the first Roadster deliveries start by 2020 was not affected by either a chip shortage or "mega drama" and still went by, it's hard to take the 2023 one at face value. Especially since the company should also be quite busy (at least in theory) these coming years with the release of the Cybertruck and possibly even the Semi.
The first sign that we might get the Roadster according to the latest promise would be seeing a hefty rollout for the Cybertruck next year. Both these vehicles, along with the Semi, rely on the new 4680 cell, so as long as the company can't make the electric pickup truck, which has obviously been prioritized over the sports car, then there's no reason to hope for the Roadster anytime soon. All we can do now is wait and pray there's no drama.
Dangling a carrot in front of someone only works as long as the person can't reach the carrot, which is probably one of the reasons the Roadster hasn't been launched so far. Another one is the fact that, unless it'll be assembled in a tent by hand, it will require its own production line. Building one of those for a low-volume vehicle is not financially viable, so not a priority for a company looking to grow.
Finally, that referral program was pretty darn successful, meaning Tesla will have to give quite a few of its sports cars for free and quite a few more for a fraction of their actual price. That's hardly the best incentive to start investing in an expensive new production line.
Of course, all this is nothing but speculation. As per Elon Musk's latest tweet, the new Roadster should reach its happy owners by the end of 2023. The only things that could possibly stand in its way would be 2022 deciding to copy, or even worse, one up 2020.
"2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages, so it wouldn’t matter if we had 17 new products, as none would ship," the message read. "Assuming 2022 is not mega drama, new Roadster should ship in 2023."
Given how the first deadline that saw the first Roadster deliveries start by 2020 was not affected by either a chip shortage or "mega drama" and still went by, it's hard to take the 2023 one at face value. Especially since the company should also be quite busy (at least in theory) these coming years with the release of the Cybertruck and possibly even the Semi.
The first sign that we might get the Roadster according to the latest promise would be seeing a hefty rollout for the Cybertruck next year. Both these vehicles, along with the Semi, rely on the new 4680 cell, so as long as the company can't make the electric pickup truck, which has obviously been prioritized over the sports car, then there's no reason to hope for the Roadster anytime soon. All we can do now is wait and pray there's no drama.
2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages, so it wouldn’t matter if we had 17 new products, as none would ship.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 1, 2021
Assuming 2022 is not mega drama, new Roadster should ship in 2023.
Google News