Tesla's masterpiece coming soon

Tesla’s masterpiece is around the corner.

The American EV brand’s chief designer Franz von Holzhausen told the Ride the Lightning podcast the Roadster may break cover this year.

Read More About Tesla Roadster

• Tesla’s secret weapon against BYD
• Popular electric cars get cheaper
• Tesla fights back with massive upgrade

We’ve heard this all before, though.

Initially Tesla claimed the Roadster would arrive by 2020, but the COVID pandemic was blamed for delays. 

Then, in Tesla’s July 2024 earnings call Musk claimed it would be reaching production by “next year”. 

Late last year, it became clear that Roadster buyers will need a lot more patience.

“I’d like to thank our long-suffering deposit holders,” Musk said, acknowledging the enormous delays. “The Roadster is not just the cherry on the cake but also the icing on the cake. We’re close to finalising the design.”

The Roadster was first revealed back in 2017 at the same event the Semi was revealed. The Semi is now on American roads.

Tesla has been taking deposits for the Roadster since that event almost 10 years ago.

It is no small amount of money either, at US$50,000. 

The Australian Roadster deposit page is currently broken, but previously is was asking Aussies to slap down a $7000 deposit via credit card followed by a $59,000 bank transfer 10 days after to secure your spot.

That’s the same price as a base Model Y or Model 3, but with no firm arrival date in place.

Tesla had also been asking customers to pay $10,000 for a Full Self Driving mode that wasn't attainable until recently. So the company does have some form of delivering on its long term promises, eventually.

In saying that, the FSD mode needs driver supervision, so isn’t technically 'full self driving'.

If and when the Roadster does arrive, it promises to be one of the mightiest vehicles on the road.

Elon Musk said in 2024 the Roadster would go from zero to 60 miles per hour (0-97km/h) in under one second.

He also said that was the least interesting bit.

However, he current Tesla Roadster page has watered those claims down.

It said the Roadster will complete the benchmark 0-100km/h sprint in 2.1 seconds, which is still mind-bendingly fast.

It’ll have a top speed of more than 400km/h and a driving range of about 1000km.

Heady numbers, but not the knock out punch they were a few years ago.

Fresh faces such as the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra and BYD’s YangWang U9 Xtreme pose a serious threat to the Roadster's dominance.

The 2026 Yangwang U9 Xtreme is the fastest electric production car to lap the Nurburgring, with a time of 6:59.157 over the 20.8km circuit.

It also set a speed record of 496.22km earlier this year, but this is unofficially as it didn’t complete the run in both directions.

The Xiaomi SU7 Ultra lapped the Nurburgring in a 6:22 earlier this year, but that was a prototype. Its production version did it in 7:04.957, which is five seconds slower than the U9 Xtreme.

The Tesla Roadster might now be playing catch-up rather than pacing the field.