Thousands of customers paid $250,000 for the Tesla Roadster. Five years later they are still without a car

Almost five years have passed since the second generation of the Tesla Roadster was presented : it was in mid-November 2017, being the bonus track in that appointment of the also unveiled Tesla Semi, the electric truck of the Palo Alto. But we are still waiting.

Or rather do those who have already booked this electric sports car. Reservations were opened from its presentation, with two versions: the Founders Series (collectors' meat, bringing together the first units produced and setting its price at $250,000) and the Base, which did the same at $200,000.

In the case of the Tesla Roadster Founders Series, reservations demanded the full $250,000 . And these stopped being available at the end of last year. Its circulation, as previously detailed by the brand, was limited to 1,000 units.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars already delivered by customers, who are still without their prize

It seems that Tesla is not only an expert in selling cars without people sitting in them , but also takes the crown in offering models that have been postponed for years, as is the case with the Tesla Roadster .

Five years of waiting and going up after paying $250,000. As of the end of November 2021, the Tesla Roadster Founders Series will no longer appear in the Tesla Configurator. After four years of being available, it is understood that the reservation quota of the 1,000 units destined for this version would have been met.

In other words, a thousand interested parties would have already paid the $250,000 amount required by this version, essentially being its full price. Thus, it has been assumed that this priority variant would have hung the sold out sign at the end of last year . Of course, since then, it has not been selectable again.

Therefore, if this is how it would be logical, we are talking about 1,000 people who have paid that whopping amount for a car that, not only have they not received after years of waiting (at least one of those who did it later), but also has not stopped lagging since its introduction.

$50,000 down payment for the Base, and no price specified . To this should be added the reserves that have been made effective from the Base model, which have also fluctuated. At the beginning of 2022 this variant ceased to be available, to be available again shortly after, in the spring.

As of today, this option is still selectable, maintaining the same terms since its launch: the reserve represents a total of $50,000, $5,000 instantly and the remaining $45,000 in 10 days.

In the configurator it is detailed that until the total amount is received, the reservation will not be effective. In the case of Spain and Europe, the breakdown is 4,000 euros in reserve and another 39,000 in 10 days. These customers are also still waiting to see it come true.

It should be noted that although the advertised price of this version was $200,000, that figure is no longer reflected in the configurator: Tesla just shows the reservation price and that's it. This happened precisely in the spring of this year, when orders for the Tesla Roadster were reopened .

Will it arrive in 2023? In September 2021, Elon Musk stated that the deliveries, and therefore the production of this model, would not be effective until 2023, at the earliest .

What he reiterated again this spring: that next year the Roadster was set to go into production alongside the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Semi. The truck, by the way, has already entered production , with the first units destined for Pepsi, which was one of the first to reserve it back in 2017.

Since showing it to the world, Tesla has promised the arrival of the Roadster several times: 2019, 2020, 2021... but it didn't. Pandemic through, it's true. But in 2022 it was no longer in the forecasts: the brand detailed in the presentation of results for 2021, where it signed a new record by the way , that there would be no premieres this year.

In these last three years, Tesla has wanted to give priority to volume models over niche ones, as is the case with the Tesla Roadster, which was pointed out by Musk as "dessert" . And it is that before the shortage of supplies (raw materials and microchips), it was necessary to choose the most profitable.

And that maxim is fulfilled by the Tesla Model 3 and the newcomer Tesla Model Y. Both represented 97.3% of the brand's total deliveries in 2021, with 911,242 units sold.

We will see if this sports car is actually released in 2023, and it begins to be delivered to those who minted $250,000 in the worst case and $50,000 in the best case (43,000 euros in the case of Europe).

Not in vain, it could well be delayed again, since in the third quarter of this year, with another record figure , the brand has detailed that fewer deliveries have been made than orders placed, something that had never happened before. What is due to logistical problems, added to those of supply of components that are still present.

Improving the prototype. During these five years, Tesla and Elon Musk have been releasing various pills of the new Tesla Roadster. For example, its 0-96 km/h acceleration, which will finally be set at 1.1 seconds with the SpaceX Pack, which Musk himself confirmed on Twitter in response to a user .

This option has been the craziest of those pointed out by Musk and the Californian firm, as they will mean equipping the electric sports car with additional gas propellants , similar to those used to drive space rockets, but on a small scale. An extra that is not entirely clear that it will be legal on the road and that they have already dared to recreate its CGI by means of .

Its maximum speed has also been detailed, which would be set at 402 km / h. In any case, Musk has always promised that the Tesla Roadster, which will theoretically have four seats (2 + 2) and not two like its successor, will surpass the concept presented in 2017: which promised 10,000 Nm of torque and a range of 1,000 km.