Tesla's new Roadster has some impressive numbers. But with a price on par with a Bentley or Aston Martin, the question is, can it deliver on the kind of luxury and drivability those buyers expect? That's going to take a lot more than just sternum-cracking acceleration.
Prices for the Roadster will start at $200,000, with a required deposit of $50,000. A limited edition Founders Series of the car will cost $250,000 and will have to be paid for up front and in full.
At these prices, someone could buy an Aston Martin DB11 or a Bentley Continental GT. Those cars can't match the Roadster's advertised performance figures -- but there's a lot more to a sports car than just speed.
The Roadster's ability to go from zero to 60 in under two seconds is unprecedented, and would make this the quickest production car ever. It can run the quarter mile in 8.8 seconds. That's faster than a Dodge Challenger Demon, an 840-horsepower single-seat car designed especially for drag racing.
And its top speed of over 250 miles an hour puts it in the same league as the $3 million Bugatti Chiron. That figure is especially surprising, given that top speed is not an area in which electric cars tend to excel. (High speeds mean much more battery-draining wind resistance.)
Anyone who can afford to spend a quarter million dollars on a car is used to high level of quality of craftsmanship. That means Tesla needs to overcome the production issues it is currently having with the far simpler Model 3, as well as the sort of quality issues it's been having with the complex Model X.
