Investors tuning in to the Tesla Inc (ticker: TSLA) semi-truck event on Thursday night were thrown a curveball when the company also unveiled a surprise update to its high-end Roadster sports car.
The new Tesla Roadster has some impressive specs, but some Wall Street analysts question the company’s decision to add yet another model to its growing list of projects.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the new Roadster will have 630 miles of highway range on a single charge and will come equipped with a 200 kWh battery pack. Tesla also claims the Roadster can accelerate from 1 to 60 miles per hour in only 1.9 seconds. The company said the new Roadster will be available beginning in 2020, with the base model’s price tag starting at $200,000.
Few people on Wall Street doubt the new Roadster’s cool factor, but some wonder about the timing of the unveiling. Tesla has struggled to meet self-imposed targets for Model 3 production and is hemorrhaging cash as the carmaker expands its battery and solar businesses as well.
Musk is understandably proud of the Roadster’s performance, but Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster says that performance may not translate to Tesla’s bottom line. “Musk’s comment that the point of building the Roadster was to ‘give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars’ highlights the fact that Roadster is more about making a statement to the industry around the performance of EVs (0-60 in 1.9 seconds with a 620 range), and less about making money,” Munster says.
Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois says a new Roadster seems like an odd choice for Tesla as it rolls out its Model 3. “We find battery size and range to be at odds with Tesla’s mission of developing more affordable EVs,” Houchois says.
Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne says Tesla now has one more item on its heaping plate of projects.
“In essence, all last night’s event did was add…
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