Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk on Friday said that the company is making its upcoming Roadster vehicle because it is “cool” and hinted that it might not benefit the company shareholders or its financials.
What Happened: “Yeah, once in a while, it’s worth making cool stuff for its own sake,” Musk wrote on X.
The CEO was responding to an X user and Tesla shareholder who said they do not care if the Roadster is practical or will make enough profit to move the stock.
Musk has previously warned that the upcoming Roadster will not move Tesla’s financials in a big way.
“Financially, it’s sort of a small potato situation. It’s not going to move the needle in a major way financially. It’s not even the icing on the cake but the cherry on the icing on the cake,” Musk said about the Roadster in an interview with Ford CEO Jim Farley in May 2023.
Why It Matters: Tesla intends to start production of the new Roadster in 2025. The sports car will be a tribute to Tesla’s first EV – the limited-production original Roadster produced by the company between 2008 and 2012.
While most of the engineering is complete, there are some more updates the company intends to make on the vehicle, Musk said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call last week.
In February, Musk said that the upcoming Tesla Roadster can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than 1 second, lower than the company’s initial estimate of 1.9 seconds. The vehicle relies on a collaboration between Musk’s two companies- Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX- to provide the incredible performance, he added.
The new generation Roadster prototype was showcased at the end of the event dedicated to unveiling the Tesla Semi on November 16, 2017. Tesla then said the vehicle would be available starting in 2020 and priced around $200,000.
However, the production timeline for the vehicle has been pushed several times since.
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