Tesla Roadster Is Coming. How To Watch the Launch Event.

The updated Tesla Roadster is on display at the Tesla Giga Texas manufacturing facility during the “Cyber Rodeo” grand opening party on April 7, 2022 in Austin, Texas. (Suzanne Cordeiro / AFP via Getty Images)

Key Points

• Tesla will unveil the latest version of its long-awaited Roadster on Thursday evening.
• The event can be watched on X.
• The base model is expected to achieve zero-to-60 mph acceleration in less than two seconds, according to analyst Ben Rose.

The day has arrived. Tesla will unveil the latest version of its long-awaited Roadster on Thursday evening. The event for Tesla fans and car enthusiasts promises to be mind-blowing, even if it doesn’t give the stock a substantial boost.

It can be watched on X.

See more…

The new Roadster was teased in 2017, almost a decade ago. It follows the first Roadster, which started selling in 2008 and was built on a Lotus platform.

Back then, the odds that Tesla would be a viable car company looked vanishingly small. That’s obviously no longer the case. Tesla is the world’s most valuable car company by a lot. The second Roadster will surely have industry-leading technology, including technology from Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX.

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Zero-to-60 miles an hour acceleration should approach one second, easily producing butterflies in the stomachs of passengers. The car might even be able to fly—a little. CEO Elon Musk has hinted about flying—or hoping—for years. Whether he can pull it off is still anyone’s guess. Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment, but investors will find out tonight.

“We are expecting a compact two-by-two four-seat sports car with a lightweight removable glass roof,” wrote Battleroad research analyst Ben Rose in a preview report. “The base model is expected to achieve zero-to-60 mph acceleration in less than two seconds, along with a top speed of 250 mph, and something like 1,340 horsepower.”

(A Ferrari F80 has about 1,200 horsepower.)

Per-charge range could exceed 600 miles, Rose says, adding “For those disappointed by the mere two-second zero-to-60 acceleration, there is expected to be a SpaceX cold gas thruster package, which could cut this time in half.”

The Roadster is sure to be cool. All-In podcast host Jason Calacanis said recently that he had seen the new Roadster: “I’m sworn to secrecy…My mind went boom…What he’s going to show on [Thursday] is going to blow people’s minds.”

That might not help Tesla stock, though. There is a limited market for $200,000-plus super cars. (Ferrari , the pinnacle of the luxury vehicle market, has a market value of roughly $75 billion, less than 5% of Tesla’s $1.7 trillion fully-diluted market capitalization.)

What’s more, the event might not go perfectly. There’s never been a commercially available rocket-powered car. Even a hiccup shouldn’t be that painful for the stock.

But Tesla shares are all about AI now, with investors looking to AI-trained robo-taxis and humanoid robots for future earnings growth.

The biggest benefit from the Roadster eveent might be the deepening ties between Tesla and SpaceX. Many investors and Wall Street analysts expect the two companies to merge one day, consolidating Musk’s AI effort under one corporate roof.

The Roadster collaboration is the latest example of the two companies working together. They also collaborate on AI agents, semiconductor manufacturing, and power supply, among other things.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@barrons.com.

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