Tesla's new Roadster turns in air with SpaceX thrusters, won't land until 2028

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The white two-seater vehicle, drove upside down on a ramp using a suction system, turned in the air and landed using built-in thrusters | Photo Credit: TESLA

Tesla unveiled a redesigned Roadster powered with rocket-style thrusters on Thursday and said it would start production in 2028, ​more than a decade after it first showed a next-generation version of its electric sports car.

The white two-seater vehicle, ⁠developed in collaboration with CEO Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, drove upside down on a ramp using a suction system, turned in the air and landed using built-in thrusters. Later in the event it used the thrusters to jump over a truck and other vehicles, twisting in the air during the maneuver.

Some watchers saw ‌the collaboration as Musk drumming up interest in a merger of the two big companies he controls, an idea he has explored by discussing their overlap.

The reveal gives Tesla a showpiece car after years of missed Roadster deadlines, but it ‌comes as the company shifts its focus to self-driving technology and robotics, and days before third-quarter results that analysts say matter more ‌to investors.

“It ⁠was an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers,” Gene Munster, managing partner at Tesla investor ⁠Deepwater Asset Management, said on social media platform X.

“The Roadster event is the latest example of why Elon can’t wait to bring (Tesla) and (SpaceX) together,” Munster said.

Musk has played down the car’s importance to Tesla’s finances, describing it in 2023 as a “small potato situation” that would not “move the needle in a major way financially.”

“Tesla does not currently have a halo car, or high-performance luxury ‌vehicle designed to showcase an automaker’s best engineering and technology. The Roadster will be Tesla’s new halo car,” Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said in a note last month.

“That was the most insane product demo I’ve ever seen,” Tesla fan and investor Sawyer Merritt posted on X. “I just saw this in person, and I’m still asking how this wasn’t AI.”

Musk ‌and other executives did not specify any target prices at Thursday’s event, although Tesla nearly a decade ago quoted a base ​price of $200,000 for the vehicle.

Tesla’s reservation page for the Roadster after Thursday’s event showed a “Performance” version of the vehicle requiring a $50,000 deposit and a “Thrust” version with “acceleration thrusters” requiring a $250,000 deposit. A “Rocket” variant, which Tesla says is “invite only,” is ⁠described as a single-seat model with a “full flight system.”

The event at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas, had all the elements of a classic Musk product reveal: dramatic music, smoke, mechanical hissing sounds and a launch countdown.