All posts in “tesla semi”

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.

Related Video:

Sunday Drive: Performance comes in many shapes and sizes

The Chevrolet Corvette has always stood out as a bastion of reasonably priced performance, and the latest ‘Vette has that in spades. And while its expected starting price of around $120,000 certainly isn’t cheap, it’s an undeniable deal in the supercar world – remember, this thing’ll do 210 miles per hour thanks to its 755-horsepower supercharged V8 engine. And did you get a load of that massive rear wing?

Team Corvette’s longtime foe, the Porsche 911, is similarly hellbent on ultimate performance. And as a reminder of how long the Corvette/911 rivalry has been melting tires we present the 1990 Porsche 911 as reimagined by Singer you see below. It’s beautiful, it’s green, and it’s packing 500 air-cooled horsepower.

You don’t have to burn gasoline to go fast, as proven by the second-generation Tesla Roadster, which was revealed as a surprise late last week. Elon Musk says it’ll be the quickest car in the world with a 0-60 time of just 1.9 seconds. And while you may not think of a semi truck when you think speed, the Tesla Semi can do 0-60 in 5 seconds flat unloaded, or in 20 seconds with a load of 80,000 pounds. Compared to today’s crop of diesel semis, that’s amazing.

Continuing the truck theme, we present an artists rendering of what the next-generation Ram 1500 pickup may look like. Spoiler alert: Ram’s mini-semi look is giving way to something much more modern. There may even be a first-of-its-kind split tailgate at the rear. And if you don’t think the Ram 1500 has anything to do with performance, we should remind you that it’s one of the cheapest ways to get a tire-shredding Hemi V8 engine in America.

Chevy Corvette ZR1 2019 Chevy Corvette ZR1: All hail the 755-horsepower C7 king
Porsche 911 reimagined by Singer This is the first Porsche 911 to get Singer and Williams’ 500-horsepower engine
Tesla Roadster Tesla Roadster surprise reveal | ‘Quickest car in the world’
Tesla Semi truck Tesla Semi Truck revealed: Here are the key details
Ram 1500 rendering This could be the next-generation 2019 Ram 1500
Ram 1500 split tailgate 2019 Ram 1500 spotted with split tailgate