Elon Musk announced during a Friday phone-in conference call that Tesla will be releasing a new model in just four years, called “The Roadster”.
The car will not merely be an upgrade of the 2008 Roadster, but will be based on a brand-new design.
The car will be able to accelerate to sixty miles in only 2.8 seconds when in a certain mode. Tesla is officially calling this “Ludicrous Mode”. During the conference call, Elon Musk stated the company is expecting that the model will be ready for the market four years from now.
The older Tesla Roadster model was based on a car design called the Elise, by British car manufacturer Lotus. This model was abandoned in 2011 in lieu of their work on the Model S.
Apparently, Lotus is not allowed to sell the Elise in the United States because of the country’s safety regulations, so perhaps we should all be glad that the new design is different and not simply an upgrade of the former model.
Tesla relies on flashier, faster sports cars to draw people into showrooms where they hopefully become more interested in buying a more affordable and safe model. Currently, the company uses the Model S P90D to increase Model S 70D sales. The Roadster could increase this traffic even further, but Tesla does not expect that the model will be a top seller.
The Tesla CEO also jokingly referenced the movie Spaceballs during the conference call, assuring potential consumers that the vehicle will also have a “maximum plaid” mode.
Pictures of the new model are not yet available.
