- Tesla’s head honcho says the Roadster will be the “cherry on the icing on the cake.”
- The carmaker has launched numerous models before its long-awaited electric supercar.
- Musk says the Tesla team is close to finalizing the Roadster’s design.
Believe it or not but it’s been more than seven years since the second-generation Tesla Roadster was unveiled, and despite several assurances from Elon Musk that it’s coming, it appears interested customers still have some time to wait before getting their hands on the new electric sportscar.
The new Roadster is supposed to serve as the halo of the Tesla range and went first announced, was announced with a $250,000 price tag. Many interested customers even placed $250,000 deposits on the car. But, rather than focusing on bringing the car to the market, Tesla has been side-tracked with other projects, such as the Semi, the Cybertruck, and now, the forthcoming Cybercab and Robovan.
Read: Tesla Roadster Delayed For 2025, Musk Promises 0-60 Blast-Off In Under 1 Second
While speaking during Tesla’s latest quarterly earnings report, Musk apologized to the “long-suffering deposit holders” of the Roadster but indicated it’s simply not as important as some of the brand’s other projects, hence why it continues to be delayed.
“I’d just like to thank our long-suffering deposit holders of the Tesla Roadster. The reason it hasn’t come out yet is because the Roadster is not just the icing on the cake, it’s the cherry on the icing on the cake,” he said. “Our larger mission is to accelerate the progress towards a sustainable energy future, try to do things that maximize the probability the future is good for humanity and for Earth. That necessarily means that the things like that are kind of like dessert.”
“We’d all love to work on the next-gen Tesla Roadster, it’s super fun, and we are working on it, but it has to come behind the things that have a more serious impact on the good of the world. So thank you to all our long-suffering Tesla Roadster deposit holders, and we are actually finally making progress on that. We’re close to finalizing the design on that, it’s really going to be something spectacular.”
Musk revealed earlier this year that Tesla plans to begin production of the Roadster in 2025. While he hasn’t said if this date has been pushed back once again, it’s certainly possible Tesla’s continued development of the mass-scale Cybercab could lead to more delays for the Roadster.