Former Tesla president explains why the Roadster keeps getting delayed and it's all to do with SpaceX

Former Tesla President Jon McNeill has finally revealed the real reason why the Tesla Roadster keeps getting pushed back.

Apparently, it’s all SpaceX’s fault.

We are using the word ‘fault’ a bit loosely here because the reason is technical, not corporate.

But there’s another thing he said that’s even more interesting.

A brief recap

The new Roadster – the ‘sequel’ to the original car that started the Tesla saga – was first teased nearly a decade ago.

It was first unveiled in 2017 with a target 2020 release, but it has since been delayed a million times for a million reasons.

Then, around two years ago, Elon Musk announced that the Roadster would feature SpaceX technology.

Musk remained very cryptic throughout the interview with Don Lemon, and he simply reiterated the same two points a few times.

First, the said the Roadster will feature crazy technology and second, he claimed this is going to be ‘the biggest car launch’ of all time.

Two years later, there’s still no light at the end of the tunnel.

And now former Tesla President Jon McNeill has finally revealed why.

This is why the Tesla Roadster is so delayed

According to former Tesla President Jon McNeill, the main reason is that there are significant engineering challenges around integrating SpaceX cold-gas thruster technology.

The current design concept – internally code-named A71 – includes compressed-gas thrusters that point toward the ground to enable ‘hovering’ capability and extreme acceleration.

This is because the American automaker wants this to be the fastest production car in the world by a margin so wide it sets records that can’t be beaten.

Speaking on CNBC, as reported by Yahoo Finance, McNeill also said the car might be able to hover.

“I don’t know if we’re going to see flying, but we may see hovering in this demo,” McNeill said.

Rumor has it it’ll do 0-60 in less than a second.

It sounds great, but also counterproductive, to be honest.

Modern cars are already so fast and powerful they’re basically impossible to use.

In the real world, a 0-60 time of under, say, four or five seconds is just a marketing point and it’s realistically only achievable on a track with a professional racing driver behind the wheel.

But still, those headlines won’t write themselves and the manufacturer presumably wants this particular crown just so it can brag about it – all automakers do.

McNeill also said something else that’s quite interesting

McNeill also added a juicy detail about the potential SpaceX and Tesla collaboration.

In his view, it won’t be a one-off as Tesla and SpaceX might eventually merge.

“Elon recognizes that Tesla needs to inject some energy and excitement back into the car business, and the Roadster is a natural way to do that,” he said.

“[This will] probably [be a] not-so-hidden attempt to further knit Tesla and SpaceX’s futures together,” he concluded.

New Tesla Roadster timeline (Generation 2)

2014: Second-generation Roadster is first mentioned by the manufacturer

2017: New Roadster is officially unveiled on stage

2021: Tesla removes official delivery estimates from its website

2024–2025: Amid mounting pressure and refund requests, Musk and other execs points toward late-2025/2026 updates and potential production targets closer to 2027–2028