Tesla CEO Elon Musk initially said the Supercar Roadster will start racing on the road in 2020, and that is unlikely to happen now. The year is running out of days and it's still unclear how the Tesla sports car is shaping up. For now, the best that fans can hang on to are faint hints from the automaker.
A few days back, the company applied a tweak on its referral program that provides discounts to existing Tesla owners. The specific change involves the Roadster Founder Series, which is now part of the program.
Tesla offered no explanation on the adjustment made but the unannounced move prompted the fertile minds of those who have been keeping tabs on the Roadster. Their guesswork amounted to one thing - that the Supercar could finally be on the road for mass production.
To be clear, such an assumption has no supporting evidence but as Teslarati noted, any news about the Roadster is a breath of fresh for fans long excited about the monster car. If the EV will not materialize this year, it is a consolation that the actual release date will be earlier than anticipated.
There is no specific timeline on the Roadster's production calendar and when the car will truly see the light of the day. The best piece of information that Musk had allowed about the machine is it continues to evolve, which means the Roadster concept models that were introduced in 2017 have been subjected to considerable revisions.
Without giving specifics, the Tesla boss said would-be buyers can expect the final cut of the Roadster to be many times better than the engineering samples that were previewed three years ago.
Electrek is assuming too that the Roadster project is moving to a significant phase. The report pointed to the same referral program and some users were recently notified that claiming the privilege is now with a deadline.
Again, the move only raised more questions instead of providing clarifications. But it's not hard to see that automaker might be paving the way for something big. Of course, the best hope is that the assembly phase will commence next year.
A 2021 production start makes sense for the Roadster. Per the same report, Musk already made clear that the earliest rollout for the Supercar is within 2022 and that's because Tesla is prioritizing the Cybertruck.
It should be noted that the timing offered by Musk synchs with his earlier indication that both EVs will be assembled in Gigafactory Austin, which Tesla said will start churning out vehicles in 2021.
