Tesla has in the past few years been mostly focused on releasing refreshed versions of its Model 3 and Model Y, with one radical new product in the Cybertruck, and the development of Full Self Driving, and the Robo-cab.
Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, has confirmed that the company’s next new product – the long awaited relaunch of the Roadster – is only months away from being revealed.
In a podcast interview with Ryan McCaffrey on the Ride the Lightning podcast, Tesla’s design head shared that its new Roadster is expected to be unveiled and a demonstration of its capabilities to happen in 2025.
McCaffrey asked Holzhausen, when the new Roadster will be re-revealed – this year or later?
Holzhausen replied by saying: “We are planning on this year”.
“The Roadster will be amazing car that looks at the limits of physics. We have really gotten to a point where we are going to be achieving that standard that we set out.”
This is the best timeline of the new car’s unveiling we have had for a while, after it was first revealed in 2017, roughly 10 years after the original Tesla Roadster began its production run in 2008.
Last year, in a post on X, Musk teased Roadster’s performance credentials, going as far as saying that some may not even call it a car: “Tonight, we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster. There will never be another car like this, if you could even call it a car.”
At the same time, Musk also said: “I think it has a shot at being the most mind-blowing product demo of all time”.
Last month, Musk promised that the long-awaited new Roadster will be “something special beyond a car”.
Even in 2025, Tesla’s Australian website has a Roadster 2.0 placeholder page. According to that page, the specs currently list 0-100 km/h in 2.1 seconds.
The website also lists a top speed of 400 km/h and an estimated range of 1,000 km. Recently, the vehicle top speed record has been broken by BYD’s Yangwang U9 Xtreme, clocking almost 500 km/h at a test track in Germany.
A bit more on the specs from the Australian website includes a powertrain that will feature 10,000 Nm of wheel torque. The original specs also list a quarter-mile time of 8.8 seconds, making it one of the quickest production cars.
With quite a bit of hype behind this car by the Tesla team, it would be quite interesting to see its reveal in the coming months, and then of course, a production timeline that can’t be too far away.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.