It is impossible to overstate the hype around the acceleration of the upcoming Tesla Roadster, so the new car will have to either deliver on everything that was promised or feel a huge backlash from the disappointed public.
Elon Musk's reveal of the car included some staggering numbers, numbers that only continued to get even more incredible as time went on. Initially, zero to sixty acceleration would take under two seconds. Then Musk came out and talked about using some SpaceX technology to cut that time even shorter to the point where the new Roadster would become the quickest accelerating production car. By a long margin.
The cryptic information was eventually deciphered, and it turned out the Roadster would use a pair of compressed air thrusters to help it gain speed like nothing else in a straight line. No actual figures were released this time letting each of us use our imagination. Easier said than done, though, since such performance is pretty hard to fathom.
The expectations aren't built just on Elon Musk's ramblings, but some actual footage of the Roadster prototype taking people present at the launch for a ride. The flashing neon lights probably helped a bit, but everyone who got out of the car - most, if not all of them, Tesla owners, therefore pretty used to the way EVs accelerate - said it's on another level.
If everything goes to plan, the great thing about the Roadster is that it won't suffer from the limited speed top speed most EVs have to deal with either. With a maximum promised range of 620 miles (1,000 km), you can afford to burn through some of them if that means leaving a Lamborghini in the dust on the Autobahn, right? In other words, the Roadster should be able to reach speeds of over 250 mph (400 km/h). Not only that, but it should reach them with quite a haste.
This video below, released sometime in April 2020, shows the red electric hypercar going from a standstill to 250 mph in under 20 seconds (19.88 seconds, to be more precise). The author doesn't go into any detail about how they came up with the number, so unless they're one of the hackers who got into Elon Musk's Twitter account last week and got a glimpse of something in the process, it's purely speculation. Anyway, thrusters and all, the Roadster will still have to use at least a simplified gearbox for different ratios if it's going to break the 250-mph barrier, taking forward Porsche Taycan's good work of making gearboxes popular among EVs.
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