“Tesla does not currently have a halo car, or high-performance luxury vehicle designed to showcase an automaker’s best engineering and technology. The Roadster will be Tesla’s new halo car,” Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said in a note last month.
Viewers and witnesses gushed over the spectacle of the launch.
“That was the most insane product demo I’ve ever seen,” Tesla fan and investor Sawyer Merritt posted on X. “I just saw this in person, and I’m still asking how this wasn’t AI.”
Musk and other executives did not specify any target prices at Thursday’s event, although Tesla nearly a decade ago quoted a base price of US$200,000 for the vehicle.
Tesla’s reservation page for the Roadster after Thursday’s event showed a “Performance” version of the vehicle requiring a US$50,000 deposit and a “Thrust” version with “acceleration thrusters” requiring a US$250,000 deposit. A “Rocket” variant, which Tesla says is “invite only”, is described as a single-seat model with a “full flight system”.
“HALFWAY TO THE SPEED OF SOUND”
The event at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas, had all the elements of a classic Musk product reveal: Dramatic music, smoke, mechanical hissing sounds and a launch countdown.
“This is the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to make something that you haven’t seen in any movie,” Musk, wearing a silver Western-style belt buckle emblazoned with the Tesla logo, told a cheering crowd of enthusiasts and investors.
The Roadster can accelerate from zero to 97 kmh in less than one second and can hit a top speed of over 370 kmh, Tesla vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy said.
