Tesla Unveils Second-Generation Roadster
Elon Musk was just supposed to reveal the Tesla semi on Thursday, Nov. 17, so jaws dropped in surprise when a red electric convertible stole the spotlight to the blast of rock music. It's at that moment that the Tesla CEO proudly announced the second generation Tesla Roadster.
His latest "smackdown" to an auto industry still holding on to the internal combustion engine, as Musk describes the new Roadster, also looks to be fastest production car ever made. If the Tesla CEO claims are to prove accurate, the Roadster 2 will be the first production model to go zero to 60 miles per hour in under two seconds, as The Verge notes.
After Thursday's big reveal, Tesla would later officially claim the designation of "the quickest car in the world." The numbers on the new Roadster's website indicates that the new electric vehicle can go from standstill to 60 miles per hour in just 1.9 seconds, with a top speed of more than 250 miles per hour.
With that rapid acceleration, the new Roadster can clear the standard quarter mile in just 8.9 seconds, and it can climb up to 100 miles per hour in under half that distance, too.
The Roadster 2 comes equipped with a 200 kWh battery pack that gives it a 620-mile range in a single charge, while still being able to seat four occupants. The new release from Tesla has two motors for each rear wheel and one at the front, giving it an all-wheel drive torque of 10,000 Nm.
Unlike the Model 3, however, the new Tesla Roadster will have a price tag up there in the exotic supercar range. The base price starts at $200,000 with no trim options revealed as of this time, and early buyers will have to fork out $50,000 to make their reservation.
There's also a Founders Series model for $250,000, and Tesla only has 1,000 slots ready for reservations for this variant for now.
There's a lot that the public does not yet know about the new Tesla Roadster, even as the newly unveiled electric vehicle has quickly captured the imagination of performance car fans everywhere.
For now, Musk just notes that "It'll be faster than that jet over there," as he gestured to an airplane flying overhead the Hawthorne, California parking lot last Thursday.
