- A fresh-faced Elon Musk revealed the new Roadster back in 2017
- Tesla’s website still has a page dedicated to Roadster reservations
- Does the promise of rockets and an ability to fly still stand?
Despite an original unveil in 2017 and suggested on-sale date of 2020, Tesla is yet to deliver any further information on its long overdue Roadster 2 model – one that was slated to obliterate the 0-60mph sprint in 1.9 seconds and offer a 620-mile range from a single charge.
Soon after its glitzy reveal eight years ago, the Tesla website began taking “fully refundable” reservations for a $200,000 ‘regular’ model or a hefty $250,000 deposit for one of 1,000 limited edition ‘Founder Series’ variant, as it did with the Cybertruck.
There is no official word on how much Tesla has made so far on Roadster 2 deposits, but it will continue to take your money, despite no update from Elon Musk on a production date, full specification, final design or a final price, as pointed out by CarScoops.
If you’re mad enough, you can head to the Tesla US website, where you will be asked to hand over $5,000 of your hard earned cash to simply to join the reservation list, where a further $45,000 will be required within 10 days to secure a build slot.
Remember, there’s no word on what the final cost will be if the new Roadster ever does materialize.
But back in 2017, Tesla fanatics went crazy for Musk’s wild promises of fantastical acceleration times, frankly ridiculous range targets and a 250+mph top speed.
Serial Tesla Tweeter, Sawyer Merritt, even suggested the marque was targeting a sub-1 second 0-60mph sprint time, with Elon Musk apparently backing up those claims on X – despite not explaining how the physics would actually work.
What’s more, the divisive CEO then went on to explain that the Roadster 2 would feature 10 small rocket thrusters to help it achieve those eye-watering acceleration times and even make it fly… yes, fly.
Analysis: Tesla customers are willing to pay for promises
We all know that Tesla is the undisputed king of wild promises, but Roadster 2 might go down in history as one of the most far-fetched. Eight years later and we are still no clearer on whether or not it was all just a lucid dream.
But for some Tesla fans, it has proven to be a nightmare, with message boards containing desperate pleas for help regarding potential legal procedures against the company, as they hold out to be among the first Roadster 2 customers.
No matter your stance on Tesla as a business, eight years is a frankly ridiculous amount of time to be waiting for a product, especially one that has cost some folk $250,000.
As one Reddit commentator pointed out, if those same customers ploughed their Roadster deposits into Tesla stock at its $21 value back in 2017, it would now be worth around $3 million. A far worthier investment.
But this isn’t the only issue that has irked Tesla customers, as Tesla’s Full Self-Driving package was originally sold as genuine “hands-off, eyes-off” autonomous technology, despite no legal framework being place to allow such a thing.
Tesla quickly had to adapt the wording and refer to its system as Full Self-Driving (Supervised), despite continuing to make customers pay for the technology. Its website makes it very clear that it won’t be offering refunds.
It begs the question, how much longer are Tesla’s biggest advocates willing to bankroll the company’s promised innovations? Especially if it continues to fail to deliver on them.
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