Tesla Roadster Will Have SpaceX Thrusters With ‘3 Gs’ Top Speed, Musk Says

Tesla’s much-awaited new generation Roadster is perceived as a hyper-car or supercar in the making with several surprises in technology and pricing fronts. It is expected by 2020 per earlier announcements.

The recent statements of CEO Elon Musk Tesla are hinting that Tesla is aiming to infuse Space X “rocket science” to the new offering in boosting its speed as a supercar.

Musk’s recent pronouncements on Roadster came during a podcast and reiterated many aspects of the Tesla SpaceX Package teased in June 2018 on how it will be adopted for the Roadster.

The innovations are sought to make Roadster a phenomenon in the auto industry as a supercar of exceptional speed and unbeatable power.

Feeding on higher expectations

Ever since Tesla unveiled the Roadster’s impressive proto-type at the end of 2017, Tesla’s next-gen hypercar caught the fancy of car lovers. The leaked specs said the car could scoot to 0 – 60 mph in 1.9 seconds and will give an insane 7,400 lb-ft of torque.

That was like breaking all rules and challenging established high-end car manufacturers. Roadster’s 200 kWh battery pack also proclaimed an impressive 620 miles of range.

The supercar performance as an electric beast is made endearing with the “decent price tag” at $200,000 as a desirable car. Tesla Roadster for sale campaigns had offered reservations at $50,000 of deposit.

Elon Musk’s plan to boost Roadster speed

Answering a question at the Ride the Lighting podcast, CEO Elon Musk went candid about his plans on boosting the performance quotient of the new Tesla Roadster.

Referring to the SpaceX Package on the vehicle Musk said: “we are going to do some things with the new Roadster that are kind of unfair to other cars.”

The kernel of the idea is strapping up of rocket engine thrusters to the car for hiking speed via the enhancement of three Gs of thrust.

“If you have three Gs of thrust, you can go in any direction,” Musk said.

A follow-up tweet by him explained further: “We will use a SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultra high-pressure air in the composite overwrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats.”

Regarding the proposed volumes of the Roadster, he said it may be capped at 10,000 units and the rollout will happen next year.

Musk said the upcoming Roadster “is a kind of dessert.”

"Do we really need the new Roadster to accelerate our progress toward autonomy or toward electrification? No," he countered.

Analysts’ view on Roadster volumes

Analysts believe that Tesla will also acknowledge the fact that the market for a supercar is pretty small. The market expects the new Tesla Roadster to be in low volume and release will happen by mid-2021 soon after the ramp-up of Model Y.

The volumes will be moderate and there will be no surprise if the number becomes half or a quarter of what Musk announced as 10,000 units.