Tesla’s Long-Delayed Roadster Finally Arrives — and It Flies, Flips and Hits 60 MPH in Under a Second

‘Turns out the future does have flying cars,’ Tesla CEO Elon Musk said

MCGREGOR, Texas — Nearly a decade after first teasing it, Tesla on Thursday unveiled its second-generation Roadster with a demonstration that looked more like a rocket test than a car launch. The vehicle drove upside down, leapt into the air and landed upright on cold-gas thrusters at a SpaceX test site in central Texas.

The two-seat electric sports car was revealed at the site in McGregor nine years after the original concept debuted. Its thrusters, built with SpaceX engineers, let it jump, flip and land. Tesla said the reveal had been pushed back about two weeks because of weather at the facility, which SpaceX uses to test rocket engines.

The opening stunt set the tone. The Roadster climbed a giant curved ramp, holding onto the surface with a fan-driven suction system until it was hanging fully inverted. Then it launched off the ramp, flipped in midair and settled onto the pavement. For an encore, the car vaulted over a row of Tesla vehicles that included a Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Cybercab and a Semi truck, flipping before it landed. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, compared the move to a skateboarding trick. “We call that the kickflip,” he said.

“Turns out the future does have flying cars,” said Elon Musk, who leads both Tesla and SpaceX. Musk described the car as the culmination of incredible work by engineers from his two companies.

The flight system has 10 thrusters linked to 600 liters of compressed air, which lift and spin the vehicle, according to Moravy as quoted by TechCrunch. Tesla says the same system can also make the car accelerate harder than tires alone allow. In a post on X, the company said the thrusters produce several times the force the tires can transmit to the road. During the event, a demonstration car reached 60 mph in 0.81 seconds, a figure Tesla has not had independently verified.

Tesla will offer the Roadster in three configurations, according to specifications the company published after the event:

• Performance: a road-legal two-seater with active aerodynamics and the suction system, listed at under 1.6 seconds from zero to 60 mph.
• Thrust: a race-oriented two-seater with rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters, listed at under 0.9 seconds.
• Rocket: a single-seat model with a full flight system, listed at under 0.59 seconds.

Tesla says the Rocket has more than 300 miles of range and a top speed above 230 mph. However, the company’s Roadster page says the Rocket is invitation-only and not approved for public road use. Tesla gave no explanation of how a car with short-hop flight capability might eventually be cleared for the street.

Tesla did not announce a final price for any version. In 2017, it had quoted a base price of $200,000. For now, the reservation page asks for a $50,000 deposit on the Performance model and a $250,000 deposit on the Thrust model. Both require $5,000 up front, with the rest due within 10 days or the reservation may be canceled. The Thrust model is limited to one order per customer. Tesla’s reservation agreement says any estimated price is only an estimate and that a reservation is not a purchase of a vehicle.

Executives said production will begin in 2028, and the car will be built at Gigafactory Texas, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Buyers have reason to be cautious about that timeline. When Tesla showed the Roadster prototype in 2017, it promised deliveries would begin in 2020. Production targets have slipped repeatedly since then. Musk insisted the 2028 date was firm this time, according to Drive Tesla.

The unveiling gives Tesla a headline-grabbing halo car after years of missed deadlines. It also comes as the company pivots its focus toward self-driving technology and robotics, and just days before third-quarter earnings that analysts say will matter more to investors, Reuters reported. Some observers saw the close Tesla-SpaceX collaboration as Musk building interest in a possible merger of the two companies he controls, an idea he has discussed publicly. Business Insider suggested the spectacle may also serve as a recruiting pitch for engineers, as Tesla spends heavily on artificial intelligence.

For many of the reservation holders Tesla invited to Thursday’s event, those business questions were secondary to what they had just watched. Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt, who attended in person, wrote on X that it was the most insane product demo he had ever seen.

Whether the Roadster’s acrobatics turn into a car customers can actually drive home in 2028 remains the question Tesla must now answer.