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Tesla reveals SpaceX-powered Roadster that flies and falls with style
Tesla just revealed its redesigned second-generation Roadster with SpaceX thrusters, a vehicle CEO Elon Musk has called “the best of the last of the human-driven cars.”
Musk showed off the car at an event outside Waco, Texas, with a demonstration that saw the car use a mixture of high-powered fans and thrusters to drive up an inverted ramp, spin around, and ease itself to a landing on the pavement below. The car also used the thrusters to lift itself over a Cybercab, Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, Model Y, and Model 3 while in motion.
“This will be the actual car that’s on the roads,” Musk said of the car, which Tesla showed accelerating 0 to 60 miles per hour in one second. “It literally is just going to puff itself up, and uh, and be able to do this, these maneuvers whenever you’d like.”
Musk said Tesla will finally build the long-delayed vehicle in 2028, but didn’t name a price. Tesla will offer it in three trims. The first is “Performance,” which Tesla describes as “road ready.” It seats two, has active aerodynamics, and features a “multi-mode suction system for next-level performance on and off the track.” The second trim is “Thrust,” which is “race ready” and seats two, and has rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters that enable sub-one-second 0-to-60 mph accleration. The third is “Rocket,” which is “air ready” and seats one, and has 10 cold-gas thrusters positioned around the car.
All three trims will have 300 miles of range and be capable of speeds exceeding 230 miles per hour.
Tesla’s website showed Thursday the company is taking reservations for the car, charging $50,000 just to reserve the Performance, and $250,000 for Thrust. The Rocket trim is billed as “invite only.”
Engineering VP Lars Moravy said at the event that the Roadster uses 10 thrusters connected to 600 liters of compressed air to lift and spin the car in midair. The air tank can be recharged, he said. “Every usable void in the car is packed with Carbon Fiber Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs),” Tesla wrote in a post on X, referring to the type of pressure vessel that has been at the root of multiple SpaceX rocket explosions. The company said “every usable void” in the car is filled with these vessels.
Musk also said at the event that Tesla may try to jump the Snake River Canyon — the site of Evel Knievel’s famous attempt to cross the gorge in a steam-powered rocket.
Musk has positioned the Roadster as a true halo car for Tesla, saying at one point that he’s “not sure it moves the needle massively from a revenue standpoint.” But he has previously said that “safety is not the main goal” with the new Roadster.
“If you buy a Ferrari, safety is not the number one goal. I say, if safety is your number one goal, do not buy the Roadster,” he said on a podcast earlier this year. Tesla would “aspire not to kill anyone in this car,” he said.