Tesla Roadster Reservations Open Again, Including Europe: Good Sign

During the Giga Texas opening event Elon Musk stated that the new Tesla Roadster would rise from the projects put in the fridge, and that it would finally arrive on the market in 2023; an almost traditional announcement that is made at each Tesla event ever since the first presentation of the sports car.

But now this announcement reached a new level with the confirmation of the re-opening of online reservations for the Roadster, which are also available for Europe: as we can see on the Tesla website, if you want to be on the waiting list you will have to make a 43,000 euros deposit; the first 4,000 via credit card payment, and the remaining 39,000 euros via wire transfer within the following 10 days.

As usual, this is a payment that European customers (or in fact, any other customer from anywhere) can recover at any time if they finally decide not to make the purchase. Now, it remains to be seen what exact features Tesla will be finally offering, as the arrival of the Model S Plaid has changed things somehow, since the saloon broke all the schemes by offering what the Roadster had already promised to deliver, in a body almost five meters long and with ample load capacity.

This situation will most probably make Tesla to try to go beyond the amazing 2.1 seconds that the Model S needs to go 0 – 60 mph; a huge challenge where a combined effort of engineering and materials development will be necessary in order to improve those already fantastic figures. But not only that: just fulfilling the promises already made will be a challenge "per se": reaching a maximum speed of 250 mph and achieving a 620 mile-range in its top feature version; all this at a price that shouldn't go too far beyond the $140,000 price tag of the Model S Plaid.

These are ingredients that, together with the lack of materials - such as batteries and microchips - and the prioritization of other very important projects, such as the Cybertruck, would suggest that the Roadster could in fact continue yet one more season in the area of "future projects"; but luckily it is something that this new opening of the on-line configurator has denied, telling us that unless some extraordinary and unexpected event happens, the Roadster will indeed arrive on the market in 2023.

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.