Producer: Electric Planet News
Author: Yu Fei
A few days ago, tesla Roadster was back in the world's field of vision — strictly speaking Chinese world.
The headlines in the major media were this: "Tesla Roadster reopens for bookings, deposit 332,000 yuan."
The deposit figure is correct, the United States is $50,000, but the problem lies in the four words "reopening".
Roadster did not strictly "cancel" the reservation completely, but in December 2021, it removed the first 1,000 units, requiring a full $250,000 (1.659 million yuan) reservation of founders edition founders edition limited edition, because it was sold out.
The reason why it was reported as a "reboot" is because when the Founders Edition was removed last year, Tesla blocked the $45,000 deposit booked for the regular version (the $5,000 deposit was as usual), and now it is showing up again.
It's a little oolong, but it's also rekindled everyone's attention to the Roadster, Tesla's performance flagship. Not only online, but also our Tesla discussion group.
In addition, we also chatted with friends who played performance cars and even supercars, and interviewed prospective owners who were about to mention Roadster. We found that different groups of people, the attitude to this car, can be described as "ice and fire double day".
For example, the third brother, an old friend who just bought a Huracan STO, made it clear that he would not book the Roadster, while another old friend, the Roadster prospective owner@Ben mars lumberjack, said that "there are three or four people around who have booked.".
The price point of 2 million has long been separated from the "means of transportation" attribute of the car, but should be a luxury that highlights the identity and taste, and the Roadster is also Tesla's most "luxury" model.
Why would a group of people who are willing to spend 2 million yuan on a car have such an insight into Roadster? Can the Roadster, which can only be delivered after 6 years of release, still pick out the global gasoline performance car on behalf of the Tesla family?
Let's quarrel today.
First, the almost forgotten king
Although positioned in a very small minority, as a Tesla, the Roadster has never lacked traffic.
Fast forward to November 16, 2017, when Roadster appeared as the "One more thing" at SEMI,Megacharger's launch.
Much like the Model 3 Sport's Roadster, it had absolutely exploded paper data: 0-96 km/h in just 1.9 seconds, 400 m in 8.9 seconds, 10,000 Nm on wheel torque, 200 kWh battery capacity, 1,000 km EPA...
What's even more explosive is that it "only needs" $250,000 – in addition to the lack of the unique sound of gasoline engines, the price, energy consumption, and endurance performance are far better than the gasoline supercar at the same price.
Of course, no one expected that SEMI and Roadster would jump tickets for 6 years, and Musk's latest statement was officially delivered in 2023. After the 2017 conference, Tesla fell into the production capacity hell of the Model 3, and Musk slept in the factory at that time.
For Tesla at that time, relying on mass production models to survive was the only task, and the supercar that was destined not to go in volume, as well as the commercial trucks that still needed time to prove, were not the most important products. Although there has been no mass production, roadster has been "upgrading".
In June 2018, Musk said he would offer the Roadster a SpaceX option. As the name suggests, it gives Roadster the same acceleration capabilities as a SpaceX rocket.
On May 21, 2021, Musk officially confirmed the performance of the SpaceX Optional Bag (yes, even the Optional Bag jumped the ticket) - 0-96 km in 1.1 seconds!
This number not only exceeds the limits of gasoline cars, but is more likely to exceed the physical limits of ordinary drivers. Musk also said on Twitter that although this achievement meets the safety standards of the mass production car, it is already very intense, and he himself does not recommend candidates with potential health problems.
Constantly "skipping tickets" may not only be the reason for Tesla's strategic choices, but also the reason for the technological process - nearly 5 years have passed since the release, is the current Roadster, or the Roadster in 2017?
In June 2020, overseas blogger Nyland reported that he found that the counting bandwidth of calculating battery capacity was increased from 10 to 11 digits at the bottom of the Tesla car and machine software package. This means that the maximum displayable battery capacity has increased from 102.4kWh to 204.8kWh.
This is seen by many netizens as the basis for Roadster's continuous progress in the factory. Musk said last week that both Roadster and SEMI will be in mass production in 2023. After 6 years of release, will we see a production version of Roadster that is a big step forward compared to 2017?
Second, public opinion is the double heaven of ice and fire
Musk's official announcement, as well as the "false positives" of the previous two days, have made the roadster heat rise significantly.
But as mentioned above, from the consumer groups that Roadster targets, we get two very different attitudes: those who resolutely do not buy, and those who have already boarded the car.
These two attitudes make up this paragraph, which is the "double heaven of ice and fire." If most of our friends are following Roadster as car fans, there are still 1,000 people on the planet who are waiting as the founder of Roadster limited edition prospective owners.
For example, our old friend, the famous Tesla owner @ Mars Lumberjack Ben. Ben told us that Roadster has a very high status in Tesla's circle of car friends. And although The Roadster's final price has not yet been determined, three or four people have already booked it.
However, Ben believes that the roadster founder's version will most likely fall around 2.5 million yuan, including optional and domestic taxes. As a 2 million+ sports car, he said that the Roadster is equivalent to "killing" all gasoline supercars.
"In 1.1 seconds, is there a competitor on earth?" He asked us this question, and believed that there would be no similar model in the last 5-8 years, "because Tesla will not do roadster any time soon, this is Musk's love car."
In addition, Roadster's 6-year jump ticket also made Ben believe that the final mass production version will have many parameters beyond the released version, such as 1000 km EPA endurance.
There is fire, nature there is also ice, such as the third brother who recently bought a Huracan STO with a few friends.
He thinks that the Roadster's return rate of driving out is still not as good as that of Lamborghini, "people who understand understand, they have to explain half a day when they go out, who knows if you are a 2 million car?" As for those who don't understand, they may say, "This Model 3 is a good change."
Huracan of the third brother
On the other hand, the control of traditional supercar brands, he also believes that it is a major advantage. "There is no point in having motivation and not controlling", the third brother said that supercar should be a toy for him to entertain on the track. And then the major supercar manufacturers will understand the product a little, such as Maserati, "I may buy the traditional car brand out of the electric supercar."
However, the third brother did not explicitly refuse Roadster, but resolutely did not pay the deposit, "Tesla's product ticket jump is commonplace, hundreds of thousands of deposits are interest-free loans."
As for whether he would buy it in full, he said, "Wait until it wins on the track."
Another performance car owner who works in an OEMs expressed a similar view to us. He believes that if it is just to go fast, you can buy it, but the performance car is actually a bit like a mechanical watch, and it is not very important to walk accurately/function more, or it depends on the overall driving experience.
As for the Roadster, which accelerates every second, he thinks it is more like the Nissan GT-R in the gasoline car. Finally, an interesting point, the price. The third brother believes that the performance of the Roadster is not enough to support the price of 2 million, because the 718 GT4 and the second-hand 911 GT3 are also about this price, "the sports car is a weekend car for me, Tesla is obviously not this attribute."
Ben thinks Roadster may have a premium for second-hand, especially the founder's version. The first is the unique commemorative significance, and secondly, the ultra-high-end electric technology represented by Roadster may make it the object of study by many car companies.
What do you think?
Third, 2023, Tesla's new product outbreak year
Musk said last week that next year Tesla will have a lot of cool ideas, technologies, and products to meet with everyone. A deposit message that caused all kinds of discussions about Roadster, is only part of it.
There is a picture about Musk that is very popular: "1999: I designed a financial website; 2017: I TM want to design what design."
But we think that Musk's real entry into the "what Lao Tzu wants to do" stage should be after the opening of the Texas factory last week. Counting Giga Texas, Tesla already has four factories with an annual design capacity of 2 million+ years.
After Giga Texas, Tesla's mass production models will enter the new technology era of "4680 battery + CTC chassis + integrated die casting + FSD intelligent driving".
Sales are not a problem, leading is just needed, and then there is enough confidence to "design whatever the fxxk I want".
The protagonist of this article, roadster, which will be mass-produced next year, will be Tesla's most favorable challenge to the traditional supercar order. In the same way, SEMI and Cybertruck will challenge the old kings in the field of trucks and pickup trucks, just like the SEXY family has done in the past 10 years.
Finally, when more market segments are occupied by Tesla, or other new car brands, we would like to ask a question:
Apple Car, is there still a chance?