Tesla unveiled its next generation Roadster on Thursday.

In a shock unveiling reminiscent of a Steve Jobs “One more thing…” surprise, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the car will be incredibly fast for a production vehicle.

The new Roadster clearly takes aim at high end sports cars.

“The point of doing this is to give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars,” Musk told a crowd in Los Angeles on Thursday.

He added that the Roadster “will be the fastest production car ever made, period,” he said.

The base model will be able to travel from 0-60 miles per hour in 1.9 seconds, which would be a record. It will go 0-100 miles per hour in 4 seconds. It will have a 200 kilowatt hour battery pack and will be able to drive 620 miles on a single charge, Musk said.

That is the longest range of any electric vehicle ever, he said.

“It will do the quarter mile in 8.9 seconds,” Musk said. “This will the first time that any production car has broken 9 seconds in the quarter mile.”

The car will seat four people.

The car is the second version of the original Roadster, Tesla’s first production car. The company made the Roadster from 2008 to 2012.

“People have asked us for a long time, ‘when are you going to make a new Roadster?'” Musk said. “We are making it now.”

The car is expected to be available in 2020.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Source: Tech CNBC
Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveils a surprise new car: A ridiculously fast Roadster