Tesla CEO Elon Musk has loads of grand ideas and future plans. To say he's optimistic would be a major understatement. While the Model Y came to market early, Gigafactory 3 in China went up in record time, and many other "promises" are coming true, there are always Tesla future projects on the back burner, such as the Tesla Semi and Tesla Roadster.

We could also mention Musk's early and repeated references to the Full Self-Driving capability and a cross-country demonstration, as well as self-driving taxis among other things. However, these are not as much on the back burner as they are continuously underway, just not yet ready and taking much longer to come to fruition than Musk hoped for.

With that said, we still have no idea when the next-gen Tesla Roadster will come to market. Tesla prioritised the Model Y ahead of vehicles like the Roadster and Semi, which makes perfect sense since it's a less-expensive, mass-market offering as opposed to a lower-volume or niche vehicle. Now, the Cybertuck has taken precedence over the aforementioned vehicles, and Tesla is even building a factory for it in Austin, Texas.

Despite the mystery surrounding the Roadster, Musk just confirmed this week that it will hit the Nürburgring next year.

 

We've already seen the Tesla Model S with the future Plaid powertrain at the 'Ring. The Plaid is yet another project that's a mystery and probably won't materialise for some time, though we hope to hear more about all Tesla's future plans later today, at the annual Tesla shareholders meeting and Battery Day.

With recent announcements from Lucid about its upcoming Air all-electric Tesla Model S and Tesla Roadster rival, Tesla will have to work to prove it's capable of staying ahead when it counts the most.