Renders Show a Tesla Roadster That Doesn't Look Like a Lotus

Stephen Elmer
by Stephen Elmer

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that a new Tesla Roadster will eventually turn up and these renders have arrived to try to predict the future styling of the car.

Up front, we see Tesla’s new styling direction of deleting the grille all together, while overall, the renders show a small sports car that is totally unique, compared to today’s roadster, which uses a mostly unmodified Lotus body. Our editors also saw a bit of Honda S2000 influence in the renders.

In 2015, Tesla began to offer Roadster owners the 3.0 battery upgrade, which costs $29,000 and increases range by over 35 percent up to about 330 miles, showing that the brand is at least somewhat committed to keeping the car current.

SEE ALSO: Facelifted Tesla Model S Gets Over 300 Miles of Highway Driving on a Single Charge

Musk has also tweeted about the Roadster when the Tesla revealed its “Ludicrous Mode” for the Model S. “There is of course one speed faster than ludicrous, but that is reserved for the next generation Roadster in 4 years: maximum plaid,” said Musk. If the four year timeline is met, the new Roadster will arrive around 2019 or 2020.

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Stephen Elmer
Stephen Elmer

Stephen covers all of the day-to-day events of the industry as the News Editor at AutoGuide, along with being the AG truck expert. His truck knowledge comes from working long days on the woodlot with pickups and driving straight trucks professionally. When not at his desk, Steve can be found playing his bass or riding his snowmobile or Sea-Doo. Find Stephen on <A title="@Selmer07 on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/selmer07">Twitter</A> and <A title="Stephen on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/117833131531784822251?rel=author">Google+</A>

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 4 comments
  • Smartacus Smartacus on Apr 28, 2016

    deleting the front grille does clean up the whole exterior.

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    • Shaun Wilson Shaun Wilson on May 05, 2016

      Looks more like the Opel GT (aka Saturn SKY) body style than the S2000.. S2000s are less angular, especially when considering the rear. Although this looks like "just a render" (not real), I suspect an S2000 would have a better drag coefficient than this car will (much like the 2007-2009 Open GT also has a horrible cD.)

  • Soakee Soakee on May 02, 2016

    With an electric powertrain and the inherent size and packaging differences over ICE configurations, I think we should start to see some truly unique looks with EVs: true cab-forward, extremely low hoods, and very low (bullet-nose) frontal area. The car pictured above along with the forthcoming Model 3 are good starts, but Tesla stands a chance of pushing the envelope WAY out.

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