Photo: Tesla Motors
Believe it or not, the Tesla Roadster 2.0 somehow managed to be with us without actually being with us for three years now. The electric sports car was introduced in 2017, but it feels like its production date has kept itself at a constant distance despite the passing of time.
It's like we're one magnet and the date when the Roadster starts production is another, and Elon Musk just makes sure we're facing the same poles with each other at all times. The car will eventually come out, there's no doubt about it, but it's going to be at least four years since its introduction, if not closer to five.
Tesla's business model relied heavily on dangling a carrot in front of everyone with the promise that, someday, we will be able to sink our teeth in that juicy root vegetable (OK, maybe the carrot wasn't the best choice). And it was indeed juicy, partly because it featured technology that wasn't still available - hence the delay.
So far, though, the company managed to pull it off - barely, in some cases, but it did. The all-important Model 3 is a success, and the Model Y will probably replicate its achievements as well once it gets over the early teething period that's seen it struggle with some build quality issues.
The Roadster, on the other hand, would be the model to put Tesla firmly ahead of all competition, electric or otherwise. The car promises some fantastic performance figures (you probably know them all too well by now) coupled with some serious maximum range to make any related anxiety a thing of the past.
Given the company's more than loyal following, you can imagine how people flocked to make deposits when the specs - as well as the design, let's not neglect that side of it - of the new Roadster were revealed. And, we can only imagine, they've been constantly losing sleep over the thought of one day being able to drive the car that promises to be the quickest accelerating in the world.
Well, imagine how they must have felt when the Roadster disappeared from the official Tesla website. Well, it wasn't really gone for good, just removed from the navigation bar at the top that lists all Tesla models, but when you're a reservation holder, that's enough to send your heart racing and your brain into a meltdown.
It's probably what happened, at least to some extent, to famous tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee - and maybe others in his situation - who immediately took to Twitter to express his concerns to @elonmusk. "The Roadster being gone from tesla.com scares me", he wrote, ending the message with a worried emoticon.
What Tesla actually did was clean up the website's top menu by only leaving the products you can actually buy now. With the confusion sorted, everyone's pulse was able to come down toward more natural levels. So, we're back from the brief no Roadster at all to Elon Musk's latest timeline for the model, which was "between 12 and 18 months" about three months ago. Let's see how he plays with the magnets from here on.
Tesla's business model relied heavily on dangling a carrot in front of everyone with the promise that, someday, we will be able to sink our teeth in that juicy root vegetable (OK, maybe the carrot wasn't the best choice). And it was indeed juicy, partly because it featured technology that wasn't still available - hence the delay.
So far, though, the company managed to pull it off - barely, in some cases, but it did. The all-important Model 3 is a success, and the Model Y will probably replicate its achievements as well once it gets over the early teething period that's seen it struggle with some build quality issues.
The Roadster, on the other hand, would be the model to put Tesla firmly ahead of all competition, electric or otherwise. The car promises some fantastic performance figures (you probably know them all too well by now) coupled with some serious maximum range to make any related anxiety a thing of the past.
Given the company's more than loyal following, you can imagine how people flocked to make deposits when the specs - as well as the design, let's not neglect that side of it - of the new Roadster were revealed. And, we can only imagine, they've been constantly losing sleep over the thought of one day being able to drive the car that promises to be the quickest accelerating in the world.
Well, imagine how they must have felt when the Roadster disappeared from the official Tesla website. Well, it wasn't really gone for good, just removed from the navigation bar at the top that lists all Tesla models, but when you're a reservation holder, that's enough to send your heart racing and your brain into a meltdown.
It's probably what happened, at least to some extent, to famous tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee - and maybe others in his situation - who immediately took to Twitter to express his concerns to @elonmusk. "The Roadster being gone from tesla.com scares me", he wrote, ending the message with a worried emoticon.
What Tesla actually did was clean up the website's top menu by only leaving the products you can actually buy now. With the confusion sorted, everyone's pulse was able to come down toward more natural levels. So, we're back from the brief no Roadster at all to Elon Musk's latest timeline for the model, which was "between 12 and 18 months" about three months ago. Let's see how he plays with the magnets from here on.
This is accidental. Will be back shortly.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2020
Exactly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2020
Google News