Tesla is leading a race among automakers to sell electric cars that cost more than $100,000, according to The New York Times. The report, published on Friday, frames the company as the front-runner in a segment built around high-priced battery-powered vehicles.
Coverage of Tesla's Roadster has followed alongside that reporting. Spain's RTVE described the Roadster as a science-fiction-style car capable of flying, while La Vanguardia reported that Tesla presented the new Roadster with maneuvers that drew surprise. La Voz de Galicia, for its part, asked readers to vote on whether flying cars will ever appear on public roads.
Not all of the coverage treated the Roadster as the main point. The outlet Xataka argued that the Roadster is the latest in a line of impossible Tesla announcements, and that the vehicle itself matters less than what the company was actually trying to sell with the attention it generated.
Taken together, the reports point to two threads running at once: Tesla's position in the market for very expensive electric cars, and the publicity surrounding a Roadster model that has been presented in dramatic terms. The New York Times account focuses on the sales race at the top end of the electric vehicle market, where vehicles carry six-figure price tags.
What to watch next is whether Tesla's rivals respond with high-priced electric models of their own, and how much of the Roadster's presentation turns into a product customers can actually buy.
