A Barrons Roundtable panel discusses Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s plans to introduce the company’s flying car, the Tesla Roadster.
Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna praised Tesla’s redesigned Roadster sports car on Tuesday, saying the next-generation vehicle showed the auto industry had the ability to dare to innovate, even in a more mature market.
Tesla marked the Roadster’s launch last week with a demonstration including stunts and aerial maneuvers using thrusters the EV company developed with SpaceX. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who also runs SpaceX, said production of the Roadster would begin in 2028.
Vigna was interviewed at an automotive conference organized by Italian magazine Quattroruote and said the Tesla Roadster launch scored 10 out of 10 for technology and 10 out of 10 for presentation.
“This certainly shows that also in the automotive world there is still a lot to do. We must continue to dream,” Vigna said. “As a European, thank you for showing us how, even in an ancient world, we can still innovate and dare.”
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Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said innovation can still exist in a maturing auto industry. (Kym Illman/Getty Images)
Tesla’s Roadster was seen flying, performing a mid-air flip and accelerating from zero to 60 mph in less than a second during the presentation, which took place at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas.
Tesla shares initially rose after the Roadster’s unveiling, although financial analysts warned that deliveries are still delayed after the model faced years of delays.
A Roadster prototype was first revealed in 2017, at which point the company announced deliveries would begin in 2020.
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Tesla performed aerial stunts using the Roadster’s thrusters during the unveiling. (Tesla/X)
The Musk-led automaker is allowing interested customers to reserve variants of the Roadster, with a $50,000 payment for the “Performance” version and a $250,000 payment for the “Thrust” version which includes “acceleration thrusters.” An invitation-only “Rocket” variant is a single-seat model featuring a “full flight system”.
Ferrari unveiled the Luce, its first fully electric vehicle, in May and tried to win over skeptics after shares fell following the announcement.
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| Teleprinter | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RACE | FERRARI SA | 400.24 | +5.99 | +1.52% |
| TSLA | TESLA INC. | 373.71 | +5.65 | +1.54% |
The Luce was developed in collaboration with former Apple design chief Jony Ive and his LoveFrom studio team.
Vigna said risk-taking is necessary and outside influence was vital to Ferrari’s development of Luce.
“If we had worked alone, we would not have done what we did. In other words, we addressed a whole series of questions and arrived at answers suggested by people who were observing us from the outside,” Vigna said.
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Reuters contributed to this report.
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