2020 Tesla Model S

Tesla’s two revealed vehicles, which were due before or after the end of the decade, could not be further apart in their mission statement. One is a quarter-million dollar “toy for the rich ” as at least one expert has called it, Tesla hopes will humble all gas-powered Hypercar now sold, and the other is a tractor trailer intended to appeal to companies.

Meanwhile, the opinion pieces are coming in the predictable news cycle, which, with resulting waves in the high-flying TSLA stock, the corporate CEO of the company to give, has followed more short positions than any other stock he knows. It makes for good theaters at least, assuming you don’t also have skin (or money) in the game, and on the most positive side Tesla is pushing the dial forward in a regulation-driven paradigm with oil dependence and climate change affected.

As such, Tesla is certainly no longer alone. Other car makers will be dragged into the fight after pulling their feet in this decade, or quite sitting for as long as they could, and now we are hearing the power of a turtle and hare scenario in the making. Tesla, underfunded last decade and early this decade, and yet not making the booking profits like the majors, is of course the proverbial hare-out in front. The turtles are the global manufacturers who are financially solvent and promising a bunch more electric cars than Tesla is at this stage.

For example, the VW group wants at least 25 EVs by 2025. GM wants at least 23 to 2022. Others such as Nissan, BMW, Daimler and Ford and others are also making noises of competition in the next decade when projections of far more significant sales-and close regs-are in the game. Tesla’s current drama is the delay of the Model 3. According to Michigan-based analyst Alan Baum, the car is the pivotal point for the company aspiring to be the first U.S. manufacturer to make it all the way up to full solvency since Chrysler.

The Model S was launched in June 2012 and has the aging process for the most part by morphing into a range of cars from mild to wild defying. With introduction on the way from AWD, power over 700 horsepower, “autopilot ” and a facelift, the car still looking relatively fresh, remains America’s best-selling plug-in car, and thus OK in its sixth year when vehicles like old of big makers would be looking for more Long in the tooth.

Tesla was creative in maxing out the car’s relevance and longevity, but by 2020 it will be eight years old, and what Tesla could do to renew it is a secret as it juggles so many other balls the public has their collective eye on more attentive in Moment. That means a small two-seater sports car is actually less efficient than my big five-person sedan. How can that be?

Assuming a battery weight of 1500-2000 pounds, I would appreciate the weight of the roadster at 4,000 pounds. That’s about 20 percent less than my 100D. In addition to weight, the other most important factor that determines efficiency is aerodynamic drag, which is the product’s frontal area and drag coefficient. The Model S has a drag coefficient of 0.24, which is very low. Based on the Roadster’s similarly slim profile and Tesla’s fanaticism over aerodynamics, I would suspect the Roadster CD is in the same ballpark.

2020 Tesla Model S

With a similar drag coefficient, the entire aero-drag of the roadster would be proportional to the frontal areas of the two cars compared to the Model S. My rough eyeball estimate: The roadster has about 20 percent less frontal area than the Model S-and thus 20 percent less total resistance.

2020 Tesla Model S Price

Like almost everyone else, I was overwhelmed by Tesla’s surprise introduction of a second-generation roadster at the recent semi-truck reveal event. Zero to sixty in 1.9 seconds, a 620-mile stretch, magnificent smooth lines and a price of $200,000. Mind blowing indeed.