Tesla Patent Teases 'Electric Fan Car' That Sucks Itself To The Road At Any Speed

The story of the second-generation Tesla Roadster has been extremely long and, at times, farcical. It was way back in the fall of 2017 — almost a decade ago — when Elon Musk first showed off the highly anticipated follow-up to the original Tesla Roadster, which was the company's first production vehicle.

While Tesla made bold claims about the new Roadster's performance, it eventually became clear the car wasn't anywhere near production-ready, and nine years later we are still waiting for it. Finally, at long last, it seems like Tesla is ready to do a version 2.0 of the Tesla Roadster event, with a scheduled October date that's sent speculation into overdrive.

Much of that speculation centers on what tricks or unique engineering the Roadster will use to elevate its performance. One possibility, based on a recent patent discovery, is that Tesla may use a ducted electric fan system to produce downforce and keep the car glued to the road (via Electrek). Notably, the patent filing doesn't name the Roadster specifically and actually shows a completely different car in its drawings — but by process of elimination, it suggests the new Roadster would likely be the car that this technology debuts on.

A whole lot has changed in the auto industry since Elon Musk first showed off the "original" second-generation Tesla Roadster back in 2017. Most notably, the idea of a high-end electric supercar has gone from novel and futuristic to relatively common, with both upstart brands from around the world and legacy carmakers like Ferrari and Lotus jumping into the mix with dedicated EV supercars and hypercars.

All of these high-performance EVs are fast and powerful, often ridiculously so. So, given Tesla's EV experience and Elon Musk's broader ventures into aerospace, many are expecting the Tesla Roadster to take its performance beyond the norm. Some speculation suggests the Roadster might have some sort of flying or hovering ability — but rather than lifting the car in the air, the ducted fans described in the patent are designed to keep a car glued to the road.

The idea of using fans to create downforce isn't new; it was used on the Chaparral 2J Can-Am car of the early '70s, helping make it one of the weirdest-looking race cars ever made. As described in the patent, the new Tesla system would use an underbody inlet to feed air through four powered fans mounted in the rear diffuser. The result would be a vacuum effect that rapidly expels air from under the car, out through the rear diffuser, creating high downforce independent of vehicle speed.

Looking at the drawings in the patent, it's quite obvious that the fan system is shown on a Tesla Model S sedan, and that just raises additional questions. The Tesla Model S recently went out of production along with the Model X SUV, so this has led many to surmise that the new Roadster would be the most obvious, if not the only, application for this high-performance technology. 

Though exciting, it's important to point out that just because something is in a patent does not mean it will actually be put into production — or even built in prototype form. However, it does make sense that Tesla would try to complement the Roadster's extreme acceleration and top speed capabilities with this unique downforce-building tech. If realized, it could be the exact kind of thing that sets the Roadster apart from other EV supercars.

Despite these recent developments and the upcoming "re-debut" of the Roadster, which was just delayed by two weeks due to weather concerns, we're likely still a long way off from actually seeing the new Tesla Roadster on the road. We'll know more after the event on October 15, but for now we'll have to wait and see whether the long-delayed Tesla Roadster actually uses these downforce fans when — and if — the car finally reaches production.