Tesla’s second generation of the Roadster, its original vehicle, has been promised since 2017 and could actually, maybe, finally be a thing by the end of this year, at least according to design chief Franz von Holzhausen. Immense skepticism is certainly justified. But Tesla is at least laying some groundwork on the hiring front: it’s advertised for at least one engineer to help out with battery manufacturing. From the job posting (which was spotted by CarBuzz):
Tesla is looking to hire a Manufacturing Engineer to contribute to the concept development and launch of battery manufacturing equipment for our cutting-edge Roadster vehicle. In this role you will take large scale manufacturing systems for new battery products and architectures from the early concept development stage through equipment launch, optimization and handover to local operations teams.
The salary range of $80,000-$174,000 suggests that Tesla is casting a rather wide net, professionally speaking. This could be a tell that Tesla is actually pretty far from serious here. As CarBuzz points out, building the next-gen Roadster is no small undertaking: a 0-60 time of 1.9 seconds, a 250-mph top speed, and a range of more than 600 miles. “Accomplishing all of that will require a lot of energy,” CarBuzz’s Evan Williams writes. “In a small car like the roadster, that means a high-capacity battery with some tough packaging. Manufacturing that, then, will be a serious challenge.” Accomplishing that will also require a lot of expensive engineering talent. Let’s hope we see a few more job postings!
Color me unimpressed
A quick review of Tesla’s employment opportunities indicates that this is the only role the company has that’s overtly linked to the Roadster. Because it’s defined as a battery-manufacturing position, it’s a sign that the company is at least preparing to make the packs required to build the long-awaited sports car. And it’s possible that some of William’s concerns have already been dealt with, and that Tesla will make good on von Holzhausen’s assurances to reveal what we might call a “production intent” Roadster by the end of the year. But von Holzhausen also said that deliveries won’t commence until around 2027, and even the most credulous potential customers should expect that timeline to slip.
It’s all rather distracting, in any case. The Roadster reveal was thrilling in 2017, but Tesla certainly has bigger fish to fry these days. It would be nice for the company to come through and deliver a great high-performance machine to the fanatics who put money down way back when to reserve their cars. But it’s far from mission critical. In fact, too much focus on an updated Roadster might tick off investors who have bought the Tesla line about the future being determined by robotaxis and robots than aren’t taxis but that can maybe tend bar and mow your lawn.
Memories of 2017
I’ve driven the original Roadster a few times and definitely have a soft spot for it. Plus I was at the reveal in 2017, a raucous event that of course also featured the rollout of the equally delayed Tesla Semi. It was, in a word, exciting. Failing to get the new Roadster done has given us good reason to be disappointed with Tesla, especially because deposits were taken and the company has often followed a pattern of overpromising, then underdelivering. Tesla has made a lot of people a lot of money over the past eight years, so we’re sometimes inclined to look away from its stall tactics. But it never hurts to call them out, especially as the company now appears to be distancing itself from its roots.
Even if Tesla moves away from consumer vehicles toward androids and taxis, however, I hope it brings the Roadster to market at some future date, to preserve some of that good old-fashioned halo car action. On top of that, an exotic, high-performance sportster is a test bed for new technologies. Who would fail to be impressed if Tesla can create a battery that fits in a small, lightweight package and still yields impressive range while serving up staggering speed? But none of this speculation allows us to evade a key question: Is Tesla all that interested in where it came from anymore?
