- Elon Musk called the new Tesla Roadster a "hardcore smackdown to gas-powered cars."
- Tesla finally has a proper supercar.
- Serious fans of the company have for years been begging for a new Roadster.
HAWTHORNE, California — It takes a lot to upstage not one but two all-electric semitrucks. But on Thursday night, Tesla did just that, fulfilling the dreams of every red-blooded fan of the company.
Through the pulsing strains of the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage," the long-awaited new Roadster was unveiled — or rather rolled out of the back of a matte-black semitrailer, then piloted into a pair of 0-60 mph speed runs by Tesla's design chief, Franz von Holzhausen.
CEO Elon Musk then detailed the sleek, red four-seater's mad stats — including a sprint to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds and a top speed north of 250 mph — while the crowd went berserk.
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Musk called it a "hardcore smackdown to gas-powered cars." He said it would make petrol-burners look like "steam engines with a side of quiche."
That it is. The Model S P100D in Ludicrous Mode can already outrun the world's fastest supercars. The new Roadster will leave them in its warp-speed wake, instantly becoming the fastest car on the planet.
The original Roadster, Tesla's first car, redefined what electric cars could be — not dowdy, glorified golf carts, but sexy, high-speed dream machines.
That Roadster is out of production, but Tesla lovers have been clamoring for a new one. Tesla has teased, and now the new car will arrive in 2020.
I speculated Tesla might roll something special out of the back of one of its semitrailers on Thursday, but I was half-kidding. To get a new Roadster was mind-blowing, especially given that the original Roadster was my introduction to the company and its mission, and it's still my favorite Tesla.
The Tesla Semi event already went to 11 on the hype meter. I'm not even sure I can estimate the volume that a new Roadster brought to the party. It was louder than loud — and a shot across the bow of every supercar and hypercar brand in the world.