Tesla's New Roadster Walks The Line Between Genius And Madness
Really, Tesla? This is what you’ve been doing while you should have been sorting out your embarrassing Model 3 production hold-ups? We’re so conflicted we don’t even know where to start.
You probably know we’re talking about the new Roadster. The car that Elon Musk rolled out of its new Semi truck by complete surprise; the car that no one outside of Tesla seemed to have the slightest clue was coming. The car that has stolen all the headlines, leaving the truck that carried it forgotten.
The stats are terrifying. Over 250mph, 0-60mph in 1.9 seconds, 0-100mph in 4.2 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 8.8 seconds, wiping anything from Fast & Furious movies right off the map. And all in the company of the quietly frenetic, high-pitched whirr of electric motors.
Sounds great, right? Hell yeah it does. It also sounds like a recipe for loads of rich kids to get themselves hurt after dropping $200,000-$250,000 on something that will melt their synapses faster than a Bugatti Chiron.
But there are problems, here. First of all, why the epic distraction from the truck? Is there something wrong, there, that Tesla needs to buy time to correct? Are there more production issues on the cards? The way the Roadster has exploded onto the scene is a stunning PR coup, but it’s stealing the limelight from what should surely be one of Tesla’s most significant manufacturing achievements to date. We’d like to know why.
Resources are another problem. We all know how many rare earth minerals are needed to make electric car batteries. Lots. To achieve its spectacular performance the Roadster is fitted with 200kWh of cells; double what the Model S P100D has in its backpack. Where are the resources coming from, and where is all this being produced? The Fremont facility is “bursting at the seams,” Musk said earlier this year, and the Gigafactories aren’t equipped to build a car like this yet.
On a joint resources/production note, where is the money coming from for this when Tesla can’t even get the Model 3 out of the door? With such massive problems that don’t seem close to solutions, what on earth is Elon Musk doing with this Roadster idea? It’s no semi-working prototype – it shifts the way it sounds like it should, despite the fact that it must surely weigh about as much as California itself.
Elon Musk has a reputation as a genius, but also a fantasist. He’s a fun-loving guy who’s appeared in The Big Bang Theory, Hollywood comedy Why Him? and Iron Man 2. He runs SpaceX and Neuralink, too. His is clearly not a mind that stays in one place; it’s constantly fidgeting around to find the next exciting project.
Remember the BFR? The rocket-based transportation system that SpaceX envisaged to take people anywhere in the world within an hour? Pure fantasy. It was never viable and it never will be, but carting thousands of people around on ICBMs, minus the warheads, is the sort of wild departure Elon Musk enjoys.
The Tesla Roadster looks a little like another one of these wild flights of fancy. It looks like Tesla’s management is getting bored with the daily grind of trying to make the Model 3 work, and instead wants to get back to the exciting stuff, however much that takes away focus from where it should be.
This quote is attributed to a bunch of different people, but it’s the truest thing you’ll ever read: the distance between genius and madness is judged only by success. We hope that, looking back in 20 years, the Tesla Roadster was a moment of genius. Right now, it looks at least as much like madness.
Comments
You guys fail to see the point of the presentation, Tesla did more than 250 million of cash flow, the 1000 founder’s edition roadster need to be paid upfront, plus the semi orders and other orders of normal roadster…
In top of that the stock raise.
They made millions that night, I bet the money will be applied in model 3 production, also I don’t believe the team behind the roadster is the same of the model 3…
Is it just me, or does this seem completely in character for a company named Tesla? (Seriously, if you know anything about how Nikola Tesla was, this sounds dead-on)
Exactly
“It also sounds like a recipe for loads of rich kids to get themselves hurt after dropping $200,000-$250,000 on something that will melt their synapses faster than a Bugatti Chiron.”
As opposed to a Mclaren 720s, a modified GT-R, or even a Kawaski H2R? Who are you kidding? This argument is stupid and shows a clear bias against Tesla. I guarantee you that if this car had a V12 you would praising its crazy performance and claiming its high skill cap is a sign of a real driver’s car.
“But there are problems, here. First of all, why the epic distraction from the truck? Is there something wrong, there, that Tesla needs to buy time to correct? Are there more production issues on the cards? The way the Roadster has exploded onto the scene is a stunning PR coup, but it’s stealing the limelight from what should surely be one of Tesla’s most significant manufacturing achievements to date. We’d like to know why.Tesla fanboys are annoying but the redactors are often just as cancerous.”
So are we just going to ignore the fact that Dodge is putting a Hellcat motor in everything is their way of distracting people from the fact that FCA is a sh!tshow? Dodge literally has no hybrid or EV vehicles and all Chrysler has for sale is 2 cars: a sedan and a minivan. There’s a reason why Marchionne is constantly trying to merge with someone. Literally Jeep and Ram are the only two things keeping Chrysler relevant in terms of sales.
The arguments about production and Model 3 delays I agree on.
I’ll agree with you on the first argument, there are loads of really fast cars, hell even not really fast cars look at all the Mustangs…
The second argument I don’t understand, what does FCA and their issues have to do with Tesla?
FCA isn’t doing as badly as Tesla. The fact is that in 2016, Dodge delivered an average of 328 manual transmission Challenger Hellcats each month, while Tesla have only managed to deliver 440 Model 3’s since production started since late July.
The Model 3 had much more pre-orders than the Hellcat, and is supposed to be a normal car for normal people (and is about half the price of a Hellcat), yet Tesla still selling less Model 3’s than FCA is manual transmission muscle cars, despite the fact that most of the markets where the Hellcat is sold, don’t even know how to drive a manual.
Holly shit at that acceleration
it’s just a ugly porsche
So, as a manufacturing engineer, generally the design and manufacturing parts are somewhat separate. Obviously there has to be crossover to make sure things are made correctly and everything, but at this point, if the designs are thoroughly solidified for the Model 3, they wouldn’t necessarily need to dedicate any further design resources to the Model 3. This would leave design free to do things like this, and manufacturing dealing with sorting out the production issues.
I’d take this over that any day.
“Why the epic distraction from the truck?” Trucks aren’t really a consumer thing, unless you are interested in semi trucks, drive one or run a company it is cool but for anyone else it is really just ‘oh, i guess that is pretty cool’. Don’t worry Matt, the people that need to know about the truck already do… Second of all, you seem to think they are going to be building these things in the near future as you are complaining about the lack of factory space, i don’t see it happening for at least at least a few years which is plenty of time to build new factorys. This is marketing stunt, one that has worked out very well, a assume all the revenue they have gained will go to making the Model 3 better instead of developing the car. About the BFR thing aswell, have you not seen their interplanetary transport system video from last year either? It is a pure concept, nothing is promised…
By the way, i am not a tesla fanboy, i much prefer the smell of gasoline, the sound of a boxer engine, but this article is pure opinion masked as truth, he has nothing to back up what he has said… Development of a car is totally different to production of a car but you seem to think they are the same thing and the people in one part of the company (In this case R&D) are actually the same as the people that are doing the production stuff “This is what you’ve been doing while you should have been sorting out your embarrassing Model 3 production hold-ups?”.
I said making the Model 3 better, i meant fixing the production problems
Tesla really should team up with another American manufacture (not a merger or anything) for additional financing in exchange for sharing some of their EV technology. A company like Chrysler would kill for this kind of boost in their EV model range and the phrase “powered by Tesla” would be a huge selling point. On top of this, Tesla themselves would be able to meet production needs and i think their market would remained pretty unharmed due to their more upscale customers.
shouldve just premiered a hatchback :/
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