Tesla unveils the new Roadster with SpaceX thrusters: the car lifts off, spins and lands
Almost nine years after it was first shown, the sports car is back with a Cybertruck-style design, three trims and production promised for 2028. Still no price.
Tesla has finally unveiled the new Roadster, the electric sports car first announced in 2017 and delayed year after year. At the event, streamed live from Texas on Thursday night, October 15, the car drove up a ramp until it was upside down, hopped over other Tesla models on jets of compressed gas, spun in midair and landed on the pavement. Elon Musk said production starts in 2028 and gave no price, according to TechCrunch, Electrek and Xataka, which covered the presentation.
How the car "flies"
The trick has two parts. The first is a suction system: fans pull air from under the car and create enough pressure to hold it to the ground, even upside down, the same idea used by the McMurtry Spéirling, a British track car. The second comes from SpaceX: cold-gas thrusters fed by carbon-fiber tanks packed into every free space in the body. According to engineering vice president Lars Moravy, there are ten thrusters connected to 600 liters of compressed air, which can be refilled. Tesla says the jets produce four to five times the force the tires can handle, getting around the traction limit that caps every other car's acceleration.
The three trims
- Performance: two seats, active aero and suction, 0 to 60 mph in under 1.6 seconds. A $5,000 reservation up front plus $45,000 within 10 days.
- Thrust: two seats, built for the track, with rear thrusters; 0 to 60 mph in under 0.9 seconds. $5,000 plus $245,000, limited to one per customer.
- Rocket: one seat, with thrusters around the body for lift and rotation; 0 to 60 mph in under 0.59 seconds and a top speed above 230 mph. Invite only and, per Tesla's own page, not approved for public roads.
Quoted range is more than 300 miles. The look has changed completely: flat surfaces in the style of the Cybertruck and Cybercab, inspired, Tesla says, by the SR-71 spy plane and the F-35 fighter jet.
What changed since 2017
In 2017, Tesla promised about 620 miles of range, more than 250 mph, four seats and deliveries in 2020, and took $50,000 reservations ($250,000 for the Founders Series). Those buyers are still waiting. The new car is quicker, but it has half the range and two seats at most, and the reservation is the same $50,000 again. Musk himself has said he is not sure the Roadster "moves the needle massively" on revenue: it is a halo car. Tesla has not announced pricing or plans beyond the United States.
