Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has a “fairly exciting” Christmas gift to give early adopters of the leading electric luxury brand in the form of an update to the Tesla Roadster, which Musk will announce later this week.
Introduced in 2008, the Roadster coupe was Tesla Motors’ first model and the precursor to the leading Model S, which dwarfs the Roadster in performance, power and range. Tesla stopped taking orders for the Roadster in 2011 when the company ramped up exclusive production of the Model S at its sole assembly factory in Fremont, Calif.
During a Tesla shareholders’ meeting earlier this summer, Musk mentioned “something cool” was coming for the Roadster, which he said would be announced before the end of 2014.
“We are planning on I think a fairly exciting upgrade to the Roadster,” Musk said according to Autoblog. “I’m hoping we can get it done later this year. I did say it would be this year and… yes, we will get it done this year… So, we’re going to do something cool with Roadster before the end of this year.”
In response to a question recently posed to him on Twitter by a Roadster driver, Musk tweeted that the announcement would come the week of Christmas.
@tweethilli Roadster update details coming next week. Several crisis issues w higher priority pushed this out longer than expected.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2014
Musk and Tesla have had no shortage of crises in recent months. The company was forced to push back the release of its third model, the X SUV, because of production issues, its stock has taken a hit as a result of cheap oil and major investor sell-offs by automakers Toyota and Daimler, and Musk was forced to push a SpaceX NASA launch into January last week because of an issue with the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.
However, none of that will keep Roadster owners from getting their gifts, according to Musk, who told Auto Express in August that the Roadster would eventually receive an upgraded battery to push its current 245-mile range to 400 on a single charge — around 130 miles beyond the Model S.
While that’s likely the upgrade Musk is referring too, Roadster owners will have to wait and see if there’s anything else under Musk’s tree. The CEO announced a major upgrade to the Model S earlier this year in the form of the P85D — an all-wheel-drive Model S with a substantial boost in horsepower and performance. (RELATED: Watch Tesla’s New All-Wheel-Drive Model S DESTROY A Ferrari)
