Tesla reveals a SpaceX-powered Roadster that can fly

Tesla revealed its redesigned second-generation Roadster on Thursday at an event outside Waco, Texas, positioning it as what CEO Elon Musk called one of the last great human-driven performance cars. In the on-stage demo, the car combined high-powered fans with SpaceX-designed thrusters to drive up an inverted ramp, spin around, and ease itself down to a landing — and, while in motion, to lift itself over a Cybercab, Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, Model Y and Model 3. Musk said the production version will accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in one second and can repeat the stunt on demand.

Musk said Tesla will finally build the long-delayed vehicle in 2028, without naming a price. It will ship in three trims: “Performance,” road-ready and seating two; “Thrust,” race-ready with rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters enabling sub-one-second 0-to-60 acceleration; and “Rocket,” air-ready, single-seat, with 10 cold-gas thrusters and sold by invitation only. All three trims are rated for 300 miles of range and speeds exceeding 230 miles per hour. Tesla opened reservations Thursday at $50,000 for Performance and $250,000 for Thrust. Engineering VP Lars Moravy said the 10 thrusters draw on 600 liters of rechargeable compressed air, and that every usable void in the car is packed with carbon-fiber-overwrapped pressure vessels — the same type of pressure vessel that has been at the root of multiple SpaceX rocket explosions.

Musk has cast the Roadster as a halo car rather than a volume product, saying he’s not sure it moves the needle much on revenue, and has previously said safety is not the car’s primary design goal. “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, adding that Tesla would aspire not to kill anyone in it. He said Thursday that Tesla may also attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon, the site of Evel Knievel’s famous steam-powered-rocket crossing attempt.

The reveal lands almost nine years after Tesla first showed the second-generation Roadster as a surprise at the end of its 2017 Tesla Semi event, after which the launch took a back seat amid the Model 3’s 2018 production crunch and slipped again in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024, then pushed from an end-of-2025 target to April 1, 2026, to an attempted October 1 date this year that severe weather forced back again. High-profile reservation holders, including YouTuber Marques Brownlee and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, had publicly criticized the repeated slippage; Brownlee responded to Thursday’s reveal by questioning on social media whether the claimed speed and 2028 timeline were a joke.

Why it matters

A nearly decade-late halo car with rocket thrusters and a 2028 build date tests how much credibility Tesla’s brand can absorb from delayed, high-spectacle announcements — and whether reservation holders keep paying deposits on a promise that has already slipped five times.