Elon Musk is showing no signs of slowing down. Just recently, the world's richest individual opened Tesla's sixth, Gigafactory in Texas. At first, the new factory is set to manufacture the Model Y, after which it's scheduled to build the Cybertruck. But while Elon said little about the latter at the official launch of the facility this past weekend, he had some exciting news about the highly-anticipated Roadster.
The sleek, all-electric sports car will debut around the same time as the polarizing pickup truck, allegedly next year. Addressing the plant workers at the opening ceremony, Musk said, "this year is all about scaling up. Next year, there is going to be a massive wave of new products." Further evidence to suggest the Roadster is en route comes in the form of the reopened reservations site.
While not directly accessible as a model on the site, by visiting www.tesla.com/roadster, you're able to reserve one again, a feature that was previously disabled. The page reads: "Roadster reservations require an initial $5,000 credit card payment, plus a $45,000 wire transfer payment within 10 days. Reservations are not final until the wire transfer payment is received." A total of $50,000 is a tall order but is the same as what was previously expected for a $250,000 Founders Series trim.
First seen in 2017, the Roadster has been a long time coming. When it eventually arrives, it will be an extraordinarily quick machine. 0-60 mph is reported to take just 1.9 seconds, with 100 mph coming up in a mere 4.2 seconds. More impressive is the claimed range; Tesla is aiming for up to 620 miles between charges.
Musk previously blamed the ongoing supply shortage for the delay of the Roadster and Cybertruck but, hopefully, a duo of new factories and an improving chip crisis will assuage these concerns.
Interestingly, the Roadster, Cybertruck, and Semi aren't the only new Tesla models heading into production next year. Tesla's controversial Optimus humanoid robot will likely arrive in 2023. As per Electrek, Musk told the crowd that the robot will "upend our idea of what the economy is… it will be able to do basically anything humans don't want to do.
He continued, noting "It's going to bring an age of abundance. It may be hard to imagine it, but as you see Optimus develop, and we will make sure it's safe, no Terminator stuff, it will transform the world to a degree even greater than the cars."
The Roadster finally entering production is great news but Musk has a well-documented history of not delivering on promises. One only has to look at how many times the Cybertruck has been delayed. Hopefully, this time, Musk means what he has said and soon, we could have an exciting electric sports car on our hands.