Tesla's Roadster shipment to be delayed to 2023, says Musk

(Reuters) -Tesla Inc top boss Elon Musk on Wednesday signaled a one-year delay in the shipment of Roadster sports car to 2023, citing global supply chain bottlenecks.

Musk had in January hinted https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1354869981146738693?lang=en that the Roadster, which was originally set to be launched last year, would be released in late summer of 2022.

"2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages," Musk tweeted https://bit.ly/2WItQzY. "Assuming 2022 is not mega drama, new Roadster should ship in 2023."

Global automakers, including Ford Motor, Honda Motor, General Motors and Volkswagen, have been caught off guard by a prolonged global chip shortage, forcing many to idle or curtail production.

A year ago, the Silicon Valley billionaire had said in comedian Joe Rogan's podcast that Roadster was lower priority and compared it to a "dessert". "We gotta get the meat and potatoes and greens and stuff," he said.

He had said a ramp-up in production of sport utility vehicle Model Y and the construction of a vehicle factory in Berlin were more important.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Arun Koyyur)