• Tesla’s next-generation Roadster was announced in 2017 and faced numerous delays.
• Elon Musk recently said that of Tesla The Roadster takes a back seat to more urgent projects.
• Analysts say a delay would not be surprising.

Tesla continues to work on the luxury car that promises to be its most expensive vehicle yet. Almost seven years after the presentation of the new Roadster, its release date remains a mystery.

During Tesla’s third quarter earnings conference call, Elon Musk thanked “long-suffering deposit holders,” many of whom paid $50,000 in 2017 to reserve the much-delayed electric sports car.

Musk said the new Roadster hasn’t been released yet because “it’s the icing on the cake” – and that there are “other priority projects before it launches.”

This includes projects with “a more serious impact on global growth,” Musk said. The company’s broader mission is “to accelerate progress toward a sustainable energy future,” he added.

“It’s super fun and we’re working on it, but it’s got to get behind them,” he said.

Musk said Tesla is “finally making progress” and is “close to finalizing the design.”

Further delays would not surprise Wall Street

Most Wall Street analysts Business Insider spoke with weren’t surprised by a potential delay.

Kate Leaman, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, told Business Insider that Musk’s comments about the Roadster weren’t “too surprising” and show that Tesla is putting efforts into areas that will “generate the most growth and will have an immediate impact.

“Right now, Tesla is heavily focused on high-impact projects,” Leaman said, such as ramping up production of the Model Y and Cybertruck.

Although the Roadster is a fan favorite, Leaman said it’s also a low-volume luxury car. So it doesn’t make sense for Tesla to prioritize it when the company is pushing for “affordability and scalability.”

Jacob Bourne, an analyst at Business Insider’s sister company Emarketer, said a Roadster delay was “nothing new for Tesla” or Musk.

“This happens in all of his businesses,” Bourne said. “He’s talking about big projects that take a long time to come to fruition or don’t necessarily come to fruition,” Bourne said.

Tesla bull Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, told BI he expects Roadster, Semi and sub-$30,000 vehicles to all be on the road within “12 months.”

“The fastest production car ever built, period”

Tesla’s promised Roadster is a new version of the company’s first vehicle, a limited-production sports car released between 2008 and 2012.

Musk first announced new Tesla Roadster in November 2017 and said it would be “the fastest production car ever made, period.” Tesla said the vehicle would be capable of going from 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds with a top speed of more than 250 miles per hour.

Musk already said deliveries were expected to begin in 2023.

The four-seat sports car will have a removable glass roof and is expected to cost around $200,000, according to the company. Base Roadster reservations are up to $50,000, with an upfront payment of $5,000 followed by a $45,000 bank transfer required within 10 days.

In an interview with Don Lemon In March, Musk said Tesla was collaborating with SpaceX to produce the Roadster. He also said the vehicle would include “rocket technology” and did not rule out its ability to “fly” short distances, although he did not answer questions about whether it would directly include this functionality.

“The only way to make something cooler than the Cybertruck is to combine SpaceX and Tesla technologies to create something that isn’t even really a car,” Musk said in the interview.

Musk has already made bold claims about what upcoming vehicles will be capable of – but not all of them came to fruition. He once said that the Cybertruck would be able to float and operate like a boat for short periods of time. It was launched with the ability to wade through water up to 30 inches.

During Wednesday’s earnings conference call, Musk said the Roadster is “really going to be something spectacular.”

He said his “good friend” Pierre Thiel had lamented the lack of flying cars.

“Well, we’ll see,” Musk said. “More to come.”