Elon Musk took to a stage in late 2017 to announce a new product, the second-generation Tesla Roadster, and the numbers were impressive, even for a guy known to casually drop massive bombshells in 160 characters or less on Twitter. He pledged a 620-mile range and a 0-60 mph time in 1.9 seconds for the car – impressive specs, to be sure. When Musk unveiled the car, production was scheduled to commence some time in 2020, but as we all now know, last year wasn’t a banner year for car manufacturing. In January, he pushed that date back to 2022, but the timeline has slipped again – into 2023 at this point – and that’s only if everything goes smoothly between now and then.
Supply chain issues have caused delays in the Roadster’s release.Tesla
Responding to a tweet on Wednesday, Musk stated that “assuming 2022 is not mega drama, new Roadster should ship in 2023.” That’s a pretty big asterisk, given how things have been going over the last 18 months. It’s not surprising, though, and Musk acknowledges what we’ve known for some time now: The global supply chain is a mess, thanks to microchip shortages and pandemic-related closures and delays. “2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages,” he said, admitting that “it wouldn’t matter if we had 17 new products, as none would ship.” Again, it’s not surprising, but it is most likely frustrating for reservation holders, who’ve plopped down anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000 to hold an order for the Roadster.
Tesla is far from being the only automaker to experience delays, but even if we assume that the rest of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 go smoothly, there’s still a lot that can happen. All of Tesla’s suppliers would have to get their ducks in a row and there can be no COVID-related production delays. That would also peg 2022 as one of the automaker’s flagship years for product releases, with both the Semi and Cybertruck on the schedule. It’s possible, but far from guaranteed, that all of those pieces fall into place, making Tesla’s 2022 a banner year. As for the Roadster, 2023 could be the year that we’re all blown away by its range and acceleration, but recent history suggests that anything can happen at any time, so we won’t be holding our breath.
