Elon Musk, the Chief Executive of electric car maker Tesla, unveiled a surprise new vehicle on Thursday night - a roadster that he said would be the "fastest production car ever" made.
Capable of going from 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, the Tesla Roadster would be the first such car ever to break the two second mark, the entrepreneur said at a launch near Los Angeles.
He also said it would climb from 0 to 100 mph in 4.2 seconds and clear a quarter mile in 8.9 seconds. "This will the first time that any production car has broken 9 seconds in the quarter mile," he said
With a 200 kilowatt hour battery pack, the Tesla Roadster will have a range of 620 miles on a single charge - another new record.
"The point of doing this is to give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars," he said.
“Driving a gasoline sports car is going to feel like a steam engine with a side of quiche.”
Production of the new car, an updated version of Tesla's first production vehicle, is expected to begin in 2020.
Its top speed was not revealed, but he hinted it was "above 250pmh". The current world record for a production car is 277.9mph, held by the Agera RS by Sweden’s Koenigsegg
