Big Tesla event was originally supposed to be about the first ever semi-truck, but the spotlight was stolen by the new generation of Roadster.
And we will start exactly with that. As passionate Musk was during the semi-truck presentation, everyone was deeply interested more about the surprise Tesla prepared.
It wasn’t complete surprise, there were previously rumours that Tesla is planning to bring the second generation of Roadster, which was the first ever production vehicle of the company.
Dating back to 2008, original Roadster was built with help of Lotus Cars, but to be honest, it didn’t have much success such as its successors Model S, Model X or Model 3. In total, the first generation of Roadster sold only 2400 cars. Musk wants the new Roadster to be a homegrown halo car which will follow its mainstream line-up.
Specs? Astonishing. Acceleration from 0-100 km/h less than 2 seconds (1.9) with top speed more than 250 miles/hour (402.33 km/h). Musk pointed out the range, which should be enough to do a round trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco on one charge. That’s something most of the traditional cars are not able to. To be more specific, the range should be around 620 miles (997.79 km) per single charge.
If all this convinced you to buy the car, then prepare your wallet. You can already make a 50 000 dollar deposit, with a full price estimated around 200 000 dollars for a basic version. For enhanced one, you will pay 250 000 dollars, but think fast, these are now limited to first 1000 cars. Can’t imagine how better they can get.
Tesla Semi-truck
However, the main point of the event was Tesla Semi truck. It’s claimed to have a range of 500 miles, which is almost twice what was predicted before, and it’s more than double what Daimler and Cummins promise for their planned electric trucks.
Semi-truck will have a special charger, dubbed “Megacharger” which will give 400 miles of range (643 km) in half an hour. That should be enough to show that an electric truck is practical outside urban areas. Musk also promised that vehicle could go for 1 million miles without a breakdown.
Tesla will continue with its autonomous technology and will equip Tesla Semi with Enhanced Autopilot, although it won’t be fully self-driving, as was rumoured. It’s more likely to be driver-oriented, as the seat will be centred.
Author: Ing. Petr Štěpánek, Chief Editor, Future Media Production, s.r.o.
