Key Points
- Tesla will reveal the new Roadster on October 2 at 10:30am AEST
- The electric sports car was first unveiled almost nine years ago
- Tesla originally promised 1.9 second acceleration and almost 1000km of range
Almost nine years after Tesla first pulled the covers off its second generation Roadster, the electric sports car is finally heading towards another major reveal.
Tesla has launched a teaser page across its global websites, including Australia, with a countdown pointing to October 2 at 10:30am AEST. The event will take place on October 1 in the US.
The teaser itself is deliberately vague. It shows what appears to be the rear of the Roadster floating in space, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk added to the mystery with an X post captioned “go for launch”.
For anyone who has followed the Roadster since its surprise debut in 2017, this is another important moment for a car that has spent far longer in development than originally expected.
A Roadster that has been almost nine years in the making
Tesla first revealed the second generation Roadster in November 2017, presenting it as a showcase of what an electric performance car could achieve.
The numbers announced at the time were extraordinary. Tesla claimed the Roadster could accelerate from 0 to 60mph, or around 96km/h, in just 1.9 seconds, reach a top speed of 402km/h, and travel almost 1000km on a single charge.
The car was announced with a starting price of US$200,000, while customers could reserve one with a US$50,000 deposit. Tesla also planned a Founders Series priced at US$250,000.
Despite the attention surrounding the car, Tesla never confirmed how many reservations it received. The Roadster was eventually removed from Tesla's website in December 2021.
The delays continued. Musk had previously said the Roadster would be in customers' hands by 2023, with supply chain shortages cited as a reason for the setbacks.
That makes the latest reveal particularly significant. Tesla is now returning to a project first shown almost a decade ago.
Tesla has had plenty of time to change the car
The long development period means the production Roadster may look considerably different from the car Tesla showed in 2017.
The latest teaser already appears to point towards some design changes. The rear of the car seems to feature a full width LED lightbar, replacing the more conventional rear lighting arrangement seen on the original prototype.
Tesla has not yet confirmed the final production design, however, so the teaser provides only a small glimpse of what is coming.
There has also been plenty of speculation around the technology underneath the Roadster.
Musk has previously discussed fitting the car with cold gas thrusters developed with SpaceX. The idea could potentially provide even stronger acceleration, while reports have suggested a special version could use the technology to briefly lift or “jump” off the ground.
Those features have not been confirmed by Tesla as production specifications, so they remain among the more ambitious ideas associated with the Roadster.
The performance targets Tesla once promised
The biggest question for the new Roadster is whether Tesla can still deliver the performance figures that made the original prototype such a headline maker.
The company originally promised a 1.9 second 0 to 96km/h time, a 402km/h top speed and almost 1000km of range.
Those figures were announced in 2017, however, and Tesla has not yet confirmed whether they remain the targets for the production version.
That distinction will matter to Australian buyers and EV enthusiasts. A performance EV capable of combining supercar acceleration with close to 1000km of claimed range would occupy a very different space from most of today's electric performance cars.
Tesla has also never provided a firm production timetable that survived the delays, making the upcoming reveal more important than another simple appearance of the prototype.
The company will need to show not just what the Roadster looks like, but how much of the original promise has made it through to the final car.
Could the Roadster become Tesla's last driver's car?
The Roadster could also become an unusual part of Tesla's future as the company shifts more heavily towards autonomous vehicles.
During Tesla's April earnings call, Musk said the Roadster could be the company's last manually driven nameplate.
That would put the car in sharp contrast with Tesla's autonomous ambitions. The Cybercab, for example, is designed as a two seat autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel and is intended for taxi duties.
Musk has suggested that, over the longer term, the Roadster could therefore represent the final Tesla nameplate designed specifically around a person driving the car.
For now, the October reveal should finally answer some of the questions that have followed the Roadster since 2017. Australian readers will get their first look at the new car on October 2 at 10:30am AEST, almost nine years after Tesla first promised that its electric sports car would redefine performance.
About the author
Danny is a consultant and entrepreneur working at the cutting edge of the electric vehicle and energy transition. He is passionate about educating and helping consumers make better decisions through data.
