Tesla patents 700 kg active rear wing for Roadster — SkimNews
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- Tesla filed patent US 2026/0285418 A1, published September 24, for a two-piece active rear wing that hides flush in the bodywork and generates up to 700 kg of downforce at speeds above 100 mph.
- The wing deploys in under 3 seconds via a four-bar linkage and can switch between DRS mode (removing 250 drag counts) and high-downforce mode (adding 1,000 downforce counts), with a controller that auto-engages track mode via GPS at racing circuits.
- Tesla built in a two-layer crash safety system: mechanical latches that fold the wing back past a force threshold, and predictive retraction using cameras, radar, and lidar sensors that retract the wing before a detected rear collision.
- Named inventors David Lemire and James Michael Arthur Crook filed the application in August 2025 as a continuation of a March 2025 filing now listed as abandoned.
- Patent Figures 2A and 2B depict a low fastback 2+2 with a large rear diffuser consistent with the next-generation Roadster, which Tesla has scheduled to unveil October 1 in Texas.
- This is the second Roadster-aligned aero patent in roughly a year, following a separate underbody duct design that produces downforce while simultaneously cooling the battery.
Why it matters: If the wing ships on the production Roadster, it puts Tesla in hypercar aero territory — McLaren's track-focused Senna is rated at 800 kg of downforce — while the crash-retraction system preempts the pedestrian and cyclist safety questions a protruding wing invites. The patent's lidar mention, almost certainly boilerplate, sits awkwardly next to Musk's years-long public stance against the sensor.
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