Tesla unveiled a redesigned second-generation Roadster equipped with SpaceX thrusters at an event outside Waco, Texas, demonstrating a vehicle that can lift off the pavement, spin in midair, and land under its own power. CEO Elon Musk called it the best of the last human-driven cars. In the demonstration, the car used high-powered fans and thrusters to drive up an inverted ramp, rotate, and settle back onto the road. It also used the thrusters to rise above a Cybercab, Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, Model Y, and Model 3 while moving.
Musk said this will be the actual car sold to customers and that Tesla showed it accelerating from 0 to 60 miles per hour in one second. Tesla plans to build the long-delayed vehicle in 2028, he said, without naming a price. The car will come in three trims. Performance is described as road ready, seats two, and has active aerodynamics plus a multi-mode suction system. Thrust is race ready, seats two, and carries rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters enabling sub-one-second 0-to-60 mph acceleration. Rocket is air ready, seats one, and has 10 cold-gas thrusters positioned around the car. All three trims offer 300 miles of range and top speeds above 230 miles per hour.
Tesla's website showed it is taking reservations, charging $50,000 to reserve the Performance trim and $250,000 for Thrust, with Rocket available by invitation 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, and that the air tank can be recharged. Tesla said in a post on X that every usable void in the car is packed with Carbon Fiber Overwrapped Pressure Vessels, the type of pressure vessel involved in multiple SpaceX rocket explosions.
Musk said Tesla may attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon, the site of Evel Knievel's famous attempt to cross the gorge in a steam-powered rocket. He has positioned the Roadster as a halo car and said he is not sure it moves the needle massively from a revenue standpoint. He previously said safety is not the main goal, comparing the car to a Ferrari and saying that if safety is someone's number one goal, they should not buy the Roadster, though he said Tesla would aspire not to kill anyone in it.
The design has changed notably. Shown in stark white, the car now has a more angular look reminiscent of a Lamborghini or the Lotus Esprit driven by James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me, a car Musk owns and which was displayed at the event. Tesla said in another post that the design was inspired by the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft and the F-35 fighter jet, writing that its design language has evolved from S3XY to Cybertruck, Cybercab and Optimus.
The event came almost nine years to the day after Tesla first revealed the second-generation Roadster in 2017 as a surprise at the end of the Tesla Semi reveal. Tesla then took $50,000 deposits, and some customers paid $250,000 for one of 1,000 Founders Series versions. Musk first discussed adding thrusters in 2018, but the project was repeatedly delayed in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. After saying late last year he wanted to reveal it by the end of 2025, he moved the date to April 1, 2026, then Tesla pushed it back again and attempted an October 1 event that severe weather delayed.
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