Over the weekend, Elon Musk teased that the new Tesla Roadster would be sporting rocket thrusters.
The tech billionaire announced on Saturday through a tweet that a “SpaceX option package” for the new Tesla Roadster would include rocket thrusters to improve its performance.
“SpaceX option package for new Tesla Roadster will include ~10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around car. These rocket engines dramatically improve acceleration, top speed, braking & cornering. Maybe they will even allow a Tesla to fly,” Musk said.
While Musk’s announcement appears absurd to some, Tesla executives are not confirming nor denying his claim. Also, previous Twitter brainstorms coming from the billionaire genius turned out to be very, very real. Just read about The Boring Company’s flamethrowers.
Read More:What Could Possibly Happen to Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster in Space?
The first Roadster was built in 2005 after English manufacturer Lotus agreed to sell bare Elise shells to Tesla. The latter then stuffed the shells with lithium-ion battery cells and electric motors, eventually making the first all-electric car that could travel over 200 miles on a single charge. This is the car pictured above.
Since then, Tesla has risen to become one of the most prominent electric car manufacturing companies in the world. Thus, it won’t come as a surprise if Musk tries to push the boundaries even further.
The thrusters Musk are talking about would be composite overwrapped pressure vessel or COPV. It will be composed of a sophisticated bottle which contains ultra high-pressure air that could be released for thrust. The air would then be automatically added through air pumps that use the power coming from the Roadster’s battery pack. This means the thrusters won’t have to be refueled.
“Note, gas contained would be ultra high-pressure air in a SpaceX rocket COPV bottle. The air exiting the thrusters would immediately be replenished whenever vehicle pack power draw allowed operation of the air pump, which is most of the time,” Musk tweeted in response to Lance Ulanoff’s tweet.
The new Tesla Roadster was first revealed in 2017 but is only expected to be available in 2020 for a base price of $200,000 USD. Musk nor Tesla did not confirm the cost of the Roadster with thrusters.
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