Elon Musk is once again making outrageous performance claims about the long-promised Tesla Roadster. The second-gen supercar was first announced back in 2015 but there hasn’t been any concrete evidence of a production version since. Despite its lack of public progress, Musk now says the Roadster will be capable of hitting 60 miles per hour in under one second—a huge jump from its original 1.9-second claim.
“Tonight, we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster. There will never be another car like this, if you can even call it a car,” Musk posted to X.
Tesla tweeter Sawyer Merritt then asked Musk if the Roadster would have a zero to 60 mph time of approximately one second. “0-60mph < 1 sec,” Musk replied. “And that is the least interesting part.”
That’s a crazy number—one that will surely get Tesla fans abuzz—but how realistic is it? The quickest accelerating production vehicle in the world is the Rimac Nevera, which can hit 60 mph in 1.74 seconds. It achieved that feat on road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires while breaking 23 different records at a test session in Germany.
To accelerate that quickly, the Nevera needs 1,914 horsepower and 1,741 lb-ft of torque from four electric motors, a two-speed gearbox, and a 12-kilowatt-hour battery pack with 800-volt architecture. And despite its carbon fiber chassis and lightweight body, the Nevera still weighs 5,070 pounds. So to beat the Nevera’s zero to 60 time by almost a full second, the Tesla Roadster will need to generate even more wheel torque and be significantly lighter.
However, up until this point, the Tesla Roadster has been nothing but vaporware. Tesla hasn’t provided any real-world powertrain, battery, or weight specs yet. There isn’t even a tentative release date beyond the perpetual “next year” promise. So while Musk and Tesla have talked big game about its supposed capabilities, there’s no proof to back them up.
Then we have to consider that Tesla couldn’t deliver on its biggest Cybertruck claims. The newly released EV pickup is slower, tows less, and has less range than Musk initially claimed, all while being more expensive than originally promised. It also isn’t quite as bulletproof as initially implied. Tesla’s recent business of underdelivering makes it hard to take Musk’s sub-one second zero to 60 mph time seriously.
Is it impossible for the Tesla Roadster to break the one-second zero to 60 mph barrier? No. Swiss students broke that barrier last year when they built an electric car that hit 60 mph in 0.956 seconds. However, that bite-sized open-wheel electric rocket was barely bigger than a person. It weighed just 309 pounds and used a vacuum system to suck the car to the ground.
The Tesla Roadster is supposed to be a road-legal production vehicle with two seats, safety systems, and creature comforts. So while Musk’s claims are possible, they seem unlikely at best.
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