You may remember that about a week ago or so I’ve been writing an article about how Tesla Motors will end its Roadster production soon – in as little as a few months – and will concentrate more on building the company’s future models. It looks like they won’t stop production so soon, after all. GigaOM now says that Musk has ordered another 100 gliders from Lotus for another 100 Roadsters.
These gliders have been purchased to “meet excess demand,” and will enable them to sell the electric car even in the first half of 2012, thus filling the time and money gap between the production stop and the selling of the Model S sedan. It is estimated that by prolonging the Roadster production, Tesla Motors will cash in another $10 million, which is not negligible.
As I was saying in the previous article, the Tesla Roadster was not intended to be a long-run production car, but rather a limited model. Given that the Model S will be much more technologically advanced than the Roadster and will feature a 300-miles battery autonomy, I guess the market for Musk’s cars will be widely broadened, and few will actually miss the sporty 3.4-second 0 to 60 Roadster.
It’s nevertheless a fact that this car will enter history books, since it already has the greatest autonomy of any pure electric car on the market and was the first electric sportscar that anyone with $100,000 in his pocket could buy off-the-shelf. The Model S will continue the “tradition.”
