The slowest version of Tesla’s new Roadster is quicker on paper than the quickest Rimac Nevera R, investor Sawyer Merritt pointed out on X on Friday afternoon. Tesla gives the Performance trim, its entry Roadster for now, 0 to 60 mph in under 1.6 seconds. Rimac’s record for the 2,107-horsepower Nevera R is 1.66.
Both numbers match what the two companies published. Tesla showed the Roadster on Thursday night, when an uncrewed car kickflipped over a Semi.
They are different kinds of number. Rimac’s 1.66 seconds came from a timed run on a finished car, checked by an outside firm. Tesla’s is a target for a car Elon Musk says enters production in 2028, and a $1.36 million British fan car already claims 1.55.
Rimac’s 1.66 Seconds Came From a Dewesoft-Verified Run
Rimac announced the Nevera R’s 1.66-second run on July 9, 2025, as one of 24 performance records, and says test-equipment maker Dewesoft verified it independently. The records also include 0 to 100 km/h in 1.72 seconds, a 7.90-second quarter mile and a 268.2 mph (431.45 km/h) top speed.
The car ran on Michelin Cup 2 tires, according to Rimac’s release. When EVXL covered the Nevera R’s debut in August 2024, Rimac’s own spec was 1.74 seconds, so the record run beat the launch figure by 0.08. Rimac builds 40 of them from €2.3 million, which TechCrunch converted to the $2.5 million Merritt uses.
Rimac’s 2023 records for the standard Nevera were set “with a standard one-foot rollout,” Rimac said, which starts the clock after the car has moved about a foot. The 2025 Nevera R release doesn’t say whether its runs used a rollout.
Tesla’s Under-1.6 Figure Is a Target With No Method Attached
Tesla’s configuration post lists three 0 to 60 mph times: under 1.6 seconds for Performance, under 0.9 for Thrust and under 0.59 for Rocket. It gives no timing method for any of them. No Roadster has reached a customer, and none will before 2028.
The method matters at this margin, and Tesla hasn’t said whether its under-1.6 uses a rollout. Hagerty’s Henry Catchpole says the 0.55 seconds Tesla vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy quoted for a Roadster running its fans, thrusters and powertrain together is a rollout figure, as EVXL reported this morning. Catchpole suggests adding a tenth or two to a rollout time. That is more than the 0.06 seconds between the two cars’ figures, so the order could flip if only one of them used a rollout.
The Performance trim has no thrusters. Tesla lists active aerodynamics and a multi-mode suction system for it instead, the fans that held a Roadster upside down on Thursday’s curved ramp. Top Gear and InsideEVs describe a cheaper 800 kW Roadster below it, which Hagerty says is still in development.
McMurtry’s Track-Only Fan Car Already Claims 1.55 Seconds
The Nevera R’s 1.66 seconds isn’t the quickest electric claim either. McMurtry’s Speirling Pure claims 0 to 60 mph in 1.55 seconds with a one-foot rollout, according to InsideEVs, using two underbody fans that suck it onto the track before it moves.
EVXL covered its production version in July, a single-seat track car with about 1,000 hp and up to 4,400 pounds (2,000 kg) of downforce from a standstill. InsideEVs puts its price at $1.36 million, and its 1.55 seconds is McMurtry’s own figure.
EVXL’s Take
I don’t think the Nevera R is the car the Roadster has to beat. The McMurtry claims a quicker sprint with less than half the Nevera R’s power, and my read is that its fans do the work the tires can’t. If the Performance trim really gets under 1.6 seconds, I expect its suction system will have done it, and that interests me more than who holds the record. Tesla promised a 1.9-second Roadster in 2017 and never built it, so I’ll put the two cars side by side once someone outside Tesla times a Performance car and says how.
Sources: Sawyer Merritt on X, Tesla on X, Rimac, Rimac, TechCrunch, InsideEVs
EVXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.
