I remember well when Tesla revealed the second-generation Roadster. It was 2017. I was living at home after college. And, after watching Elon Musk’s splashy livestream, I distinctly recall talking my parents’ ears off about how this incredible electric supercar would hit 60 mph in under two seconds, have 620 miles of range and—get this!—hit the road just a couple of years later in 2020.
If only I had directed some of that youthful energy into, I don’t know, buying Tesla stock. But who would’ve known that Tesla would swiftly turn into a $1 trillion bet on AI and robotics? And who could’ve guessed that nearly eight years later—five years after the Roadster 2.0 was supposed to launch—the supposedly world-beating supercar would still be in development purgatory, nowhere to be found?
Tesla unveiled the new Roadster in 2017 and advertised specs that would beat any other production car.
On Thursday, Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO and arch nemesis of Elon Musk, posted to X that he had tried to cancel his Roadster reservation and get a refund for the $50,000 deposit he plunked down.
“I really was excited for the car! And I understand delays,” Altman wrote. “But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait.”
For the top dog at the world’s most valuable private company, it’s safe to assume this is less about the money and more about his beef with Musk. But the man has a point. The Roadster’s delays are getting ridiculous. In fact, Musk should’ve thrown in the towel a long time ago, because a flashy, $200,000 supercar is just about the last thing Tesla’s struggling car business needs right now.
Tesla Roadster 2.0: A Timeline
The first Tesla Roadster launched in the late 2000s, as a low-volume proof of concept to put the startup on the map. It was heavily based on an existing lightweight Lotus sports car. Tesla revealed the Roadster redux about a decade later, just after the mass-market Model 3 went into production in 2017. Tesla was on the cusp of breaking into the big leagues, and the Roadster looked like another sure sign that old-school automakers were cooked.
Then came the delays.
The Roadster has seen several delays since 2017.
Production was pushed to 2021, then to 2022. “Pandemic-era supply chain issues” postponed things further to 2023. At a 2023 annual shareholder meeting, Musk said Tesla would “hopefully” start production in 2024. In early 2024, Tesla’s CEO said, “we aim to ship next year.”
The latest: On a recent appearance on the “Ride the Lightning” podcast, Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen indicated the Roadster would be in customers’ hands by the end of 2027, a full decade after it first broke cover.
All the while, Musk has kept the dream alive with a steady stream of hype. Now the Roadster won’t do zero-to-60 in under two seconds; it’ll do it in under one. And thanks to the “SpaceX Package” of cold-air thrusters, it’ll be able to hover short distances too. He’s said a few times that it will barely be a car at all.
On a Friday episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience,” Musk said Tesla will demonstrate a prototype of the Roadster in the next couple months. And he strongly hinted that it would fly. At long last, the new Roadster may actually be on the way. For real this time, we swear!
But is it what Tesla really needs right now? I don’t think so.
Why Tesla Should Give Up On The Roadster
After a period of astronomical growth, Tesla’s car business has been in a slump for the better part of two years. Refreshed versions of the Model 3 and Model Y have failed to help the automaker increase its sales. And after its first drop in yearly deliveries in 2024, Tesla is on track for a repeat in 2025.
Just like other car companies, Tesla now must also contend with the end of the EV tax credit. But unlike its rivals, Musk’s firm flat-out refuses to release truly new models that can drive a new wave of sales growth.
Tesla’s shot at a more accessible vehicle is the $39,990 Model Y Standard.
Photo by: Tesla
When Wall Street analysts, Tesla investors and fans clamor for news about what new Teslas are on the way, they’re not talking about an extremely expensive supercar with inherently limited appeal. (Musk himself has said that the Roadster would only be a “modest contributor” to profitability. “But it will be sick,” he added.)
What they want details on—what Tesla is missing—is a new mass-market EV, or two or three. An affordable Tesla could also supercharge EV adoption in America, and Tesla’s longtime mission has been to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
The company rolled out slightly cheaper, rental car-grade trims of the Model 3 and Model Y in October, but they did little to silence the critics. The Standard models were panned even by Tesla diehards, and it’s not clear whether they can do the basic job of getting more people to buy Teslas than did last year. At the very least, they don’t introduce a new design direction or any new technological advancements.
Of course, there can be value to a jaw-dropping and expensive showcase of an automaker’s technology. But Tesla already has one of those: the Cybertruck. It packs the company’s latest tech, like four-wheel steering and bulletproof body panels, and it’s been a sales disaster for the company. Tesla is likely to sell around 20,000 of them this year, a far cry from the quarter-million units it once expected to build annually.
It’s not entirely clear why Tesla would want to spend money building another limited-production flagship when its vehicle pipeline is made up almost exclusively of moonshots anyway.
The Tesla Cybercab will be the carmaker’s next mass-produced vehicle, but the technology behind it is unproven.
Photo by: InsideEVs
The Cybercab, a two-seater robotaxi that looks straight out of science fiction, is supposed to hit production next year without a steering wheel or pedals. Musk thinks Tesla will sell an immense number of them, but it has yet to deploy autonomous cars without a safety monitor in the passenger’s seat. At the same time as it unveiled the Cybercab, Tesla trotted out the Robovan autonomous bus without issuing a timeline or any details.
The one exception is another perpetually-almost-here Tesla vehicle, the Semi. It was unveiled at the same event as the Roadster, and has actually seen real progress since then. It’s being used in pilot fleets, a dedicated factory for it is under construction and there’s a real market for it. We’ve seen no real sign of progress on the Roadster beyond the odd tweet.
Now look, I don’t have a horse in this race. Remember, I regrettably did not buy that Tesla stock almost a decade ago. And if Musk wants Tesla to be all about autonomous cars and the Optimus robot, fine. But as long as Tesla is still in the business of building cars, it might as well build ones that actually make sense.
Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
