Tesla: A distraction from desperation?

HAWTHORNE, Calif. — Tesla's latest trick was pure magic: a brilliant spectacle made possible by a little misdirection.

Behold the revived Tesla Roadster, an all-wheel-drive supercar that evokes the company's roots. Marvel at the numbers: A $200,000 sticker. Zero to 60 in 1.9 seconds. Top speed over 250 mph. A 620-mile range. Claim one for a $50,000 deposit, or pay $250,000 upfront to get in line for the 1,000-unit Founders Series.

"The point of all this is to give a hardcore smackdown to gas cars," CEO Elon Musk told a rapturous crowd here last week, gathered for what they thought would be just the debut of a semi truck. "These numbers sound unreal, but they're not."

Pay no attention to the "manufacturing hell" engulfing Tesla Inc.'s California plant, where it's laboring to produce its most basic vehicle, the mass-market Model 3 sedan, not by the thousands, but by the hundreds. Or to the $1.4 billion in cash drained in the third quarter, or to the $671 million net loss. Those numbers are real, too, but not part of this show.

Taken together, though, the two sets of figures provide a telling picture of today's Tesla.

It continues to be a font of ideas, capable of feats in branding, engineering and design that set new standards for automakers. Few companies can propose to take on both Freightliner and Ferrari in one night.

The specs of the Roadster are remarkable, even for an electric vehicle. It accommodates a family of four, features a removable roof and does the quarter-mile in 8.8 seconds.

The truck, shown in prototype form, is a Class 8, the heaviest weight classification. Its four independent electric motors, each fixed to a wheel, allow for greater traction and guard against jackknifing. It has Tesla's full array of semiautonomous driving features and can run 500 miles on a charge, fully loaded.

The twin debuts "exemplify everything Tesla does right," said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of industry analysis at Edmunds. "Very few brands have the ability to emotionally connect with consumers quite like Tesla."

But the early call for cash deposits on vehicles that Tesla doesn't yet have the capacity to build suggests that the dollars-and-sense business of automaking remains a deep and daily challenge for Tesla.

The specs on the semi and sports car would make them segment leaders, says Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Kelley Blue Book, "assuming they can be produced and sold as part of a sustainable business plan. So far, that final element has eluded Tesla Motors, which makes it difficult to see these vehicles as more than 'what if' concept cars."

Tesla said Roadster production will start in 2020 but declined to say which components, if any, it might share with the Model 3 or other Tesla vehicles. It also declined to give volume expectations or say where it would be built. (Tesla reportedly is building a plant in China.)

Some analysts question Tesla's diversification into trucks and supercars when it struggles to crank out sedans. The real trick Tesla must pull off to prove itself, they say, is the Model 3.

The Roadster is "a guarantee for thrills," said KBB analyst Akshay Anand. "However, Tesla's biggest task is still the Model 3. If that's done properly, it might just open the floodgates for Tesla's future."