The Tesla Roadster is delayed, again. It won't arrive in 2022.
On Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that 2021 was a year full of crazy supply chain issues that would affect any model the brand tried to launch. The issue? Component shortages. Musk said pending 2022 is not full of "mega drama" the new Roadster should ship in 2023.
2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages, so it wouldn’t matter if we had 17 new products, as none would ship.
Assuming 2022 is not mega drama, new Roadster should ship in 2023.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 1, 2021
In January, Musk announced Tesla still hadn't finished engineering the Roadster and that production would start in 2022. The CEO also said the automaker aimed to have a driveable release candidate by summer. That didn't happen.
The Roadster was unveiled in 2017 with production slated for 2020. But in May 2020 Musk admitted the Roadster was still years away from production.
The Roadster is set to cost $200,000, though that increases to $250,000 for the Founders Series. A reservation for a Roadster costs $50,000, while the Founders Series requires the full $250,000 up front.
Roadster specs are eye opening, with a stated 0-60 mph time of 1.9 seconds, a 0-100 mph sprint of 4.2 seconds, and a top speed of 250 mph. Musk said a 200-kwh battery pack will provide up to 620 miles of range. The eccentric CEO even mused about adding rockets to the Roadster to make it quicker.
