SUZANNE CORDEIRO
- The long-awaited Tesla Roadster return is going to have "some rocket technology."
- Musk has dangled a return for the Roadster since 2017.
- Details about the Tesla-SpaceX collaboration are still sparse.
The long-awaited second-generation Tesla Roadster is engineered to go where no car has gone before, CEO Elon Musk said.
In a recent interview with ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon, Musk revealed that Tesla is collaborating with SpaceX on the reincarnation of the Roadster, Tesla's iconic electric sports car.
Musk wouldn't directly answer questions about whether the Roadster could fly, only saying such a feature is not "out of the question."
"It's gonna be really cool, and it's gonna have some rocket technology in it," Musk said. "The only way to do something that's cooler than the Cybertruck is to combine SpaceX and Tesla technology to create something that's not even really a car."
The original Roadster put Tesla on the map
The Tesla Roadster put Musk's electric car company on the map in the late aughts, with about 2,450 of the limited-edition sports cars sold between 2008 and 2012. Musk has been promising a return for the Roadster since 2017, teasing a new version of the sports car at the unveiling of the Tesla Semi.
Since then, the Roadster has run into myriad production delays and has fallen out of the conversation as Cybertruck took the spotlight at the end of last year. But Musk posted about renewed design goals for the Roadster on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in February.
Musk has said before the new Roadster will come with an estimated price tag of around $200,000 for a base model. Tesla would justify that eye-popping sticker price with "something that's never existed before," Musk told Lemon.
"It will do 0-60 [mph] in under one second," Musk said. "And that's not even the most exciting thing about it."
What else we know about the new Roadster
Lemon pressed for more details, but Musk was sparing, confirming only that it would be controlled with a drive-by-wire yoke similar to those found in planes and it that would be equipped with tires.
When asked whether the Tesla-SpaceX Roadster collaboration would have wings, Musk hesitated.
"It does not have big wings, big wings would be unwieldy on the road," he said.
Musk has often dangled hype for the Roadster when the company's stock price is suffering, or new product launches are hitting snags. Tesla stock is down nearly 14% in the past month. Meanwhile, the EV company is offering referral program incentives on Cybertruck orders, often an early sign of flagging demand.
Still, Musk said in the interview that Cybertruck still has over a million orders in the queue.