Elon Musk teases a flying version of Roadster supercar. Is he serious?

7 years ago - 21 November 2017, Autoblog
Elon Musk teases a flying version of Roadster supercar. Is he serious?
Tesla surprised the world last week when it revealed its Roadster on the same day it debuted its much-awaited (and much-hyped) electric-powered semi truck.

Founder Elon Musk claims the car can do 0-60 in just 1.9 seconds, which would make it the fastest production car, and will have a 620-mile driving range.

Now, he's claiming the supercar may eventually possess the ability to fly. He took to Twitter Sunday first to clarify that the 0-60 time is "the base model performance" but also to tease a "special option package that takes it to the next level." We'll let you read it below.

What to make of the latest Musk claim? Well, the unexpected news about the Roadster has already led many observers to wonder if Tesla is spreading itself too thin and creating more financial strains at a time when it needs to focus on fixing production bottlenecks for its Model 3 sedan, its attempt at an affordable, mass-market car, and reversing mounting financial losses. This will likely only add fuel to that fire.

Musk is also CEO of SpaceX and has frequently borrowed technologies developed by the rocket developer for Tesla, including a space-grade superalloy for Tesla's "Ludicrous Mode," notes Electrek. So he'd certainly have a leg up on his competitors in that regard.

Or, he could simply be joking.

Musk expressed uncommon skepticism about flying cars earlier this year in a TED Talk, saying they'd be noisy and generate high levels of wind force, according to USA Today.

"If something's flying over your head and there's a whole bunch of flying cars going all over the place, that is not an anxiety-reducing situation," Musk said at the time. "You're thinking, 'Did they service their hubcap, or is it going to come off and guillotine me?'"

So we'll ultimately have to wait for more details from Musk and his Twitter feed. Meanwhile, the Roadster will launch in 2020 with a Founder's Series model priced at $250,000 and limited to just 1,000 models.