In one of his in-depth interviews with selected podcasters, Tesla CEO Elon Musk managed to disappoint prospective customers for the new Tesla Roadster on the one hand – but on the other hand, he may have further fueled their appetite for the electric ultra sports car. The roadster is the “dessert” after many other electric car and factory projects at Tesla, Musk now reaffirmed, which should mean that it will not come before 2022. But he also said that whoever waits for the Tesla Roadster will not regret it – thanks in part to rocket technology.
Topics from Tesla to the universe
The two-hour conversation with podcaster Joe Rogan, where Musk was a guest for the second time, has now been published on YouTube. As is customary on such occasions, it revolves around many topics from the name of his newly born child to machine people to the universe. And of course it was about Tesla – Rogan said that since he started driving a Model S, other cars would seem stupid to him.
In a conversation with the podcaster, the Tesla CEO said again that the wait for the roadster would be worthwhile, muttering again. After further drilling, he said that he could not make the interview a product presentation. But after confirming that the Roadster had not been heard for a long time, Musk confirmed the acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds mentioned in the presentation. The moderator reacted to his determination that the basic version was meant with a loud snort. But the Tesla boss did not want to reveal the sprint time of the best variant.
Musk did not say specifically when the roadster would be built, but did list what had to happen beforehand: build the Gigafactory Berlin, build in China for Model Y (which is going very well), produce the Cybertruck and the Tesla Semi , all by the end of 2021. The roadster was a kind of dessert, the Tesla boss repeated a phrase he had already used in a podcast in mid-2019 in the same context.
At that time, however, the semi-trailer truck was still planned for this year, which Tesla postponed to 2021 in the latest quarterly report. And since then, the Cybertruck has been added, which is to be produced from the end of 2021 – Tesla is currently limiting the Gigafactory location for this. And the German Gigafactory was at least not yet publicly planned for mid-2019.
Tesla unfair with rocket technology
For Tesla, there is still plenty of meat, potatoes and vegetables to eat before it goes to the roadster dessert, as Musk put it. A start in 2021 would only be conceivable if Musk at two factories (Berlin and USA) and two new large electric cars (Cybertruck and Semi) at the same time far exceeded the current schedules.
But the wait should be worth it: The roadster will be almost unfair to the competition because Tesla borrows some rocket technology, Musk explained in the podcast. He has already announced this in a similar way – the Tesla racer is to be supported with SpaceX nozzles and, among other things, accelerate much faster. However, the current statements sounded a bit as if the basic roadster already received rocket support. And another element of his drive will be available sooner, Musk repeated an earlier announcement: the “plaid” version with three motors, which should be available for the Tesla Model S from the end of this year.
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