The Roadster is one of the iconic models from Tesla’s EV line-up. It was the first car in many aspects, including being the first highway-legal all-electric car to feature lithium-ion battery cells, and it was also the first EV to travel 393km on a single charge – at least according to claims.
Many were also excited when the company unveiled the second-generation model of the Roadster back in 2017. However, since then, there has been no word on the car being launched anytime soon.
Nevertheless, the project is confirmed not to be abandoned, and now we have some updates about the car from Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy. These updates were given during an interview at the X Takeover event held last weekend in California.
Lars stated that the company is aiming for the Roadster 2.0 to be the “last best driver’s car” before autonomy takes over the industry. He also noted that there would be a future where driving cars manually would become a luxury, and until then, this model would be the best of the breed.
“We spent a lot of time in the last few years rethinking what we did, why we did it, and what would make an awesome and exciting last best driver’s car,” he said. “We’ve been making it better and better, and it’s even a little bit more than a car. We showed Elon some cool demos last week and tech we’ve been working on, and he got a little excited.”
When asked if the SpaceX package is what’s delaying the car, he did not say no, as there are some aspects of it that are still being figured out. One of them is determining the fuel ratio for the rocket thrusters, which is claimed to improve acceleration, top speed, braking and cornering.
The Roadster 2.0 is also claimed to have an all-wheel-drive terrain that can complete the century sprint in 2.1 seconds with a top speed of over 250km/h. It also comes with a range of 1000km. Other features include a glass roof and four-seat interior.
