Tesla unveils a new rocket-powered Roadster

JUST FOR SHOW: The new-generation sports car, which would not begin production until 2028, finally gives Tesla a showpiece after years of missed Roadster deadlines

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.

Tesla unveils its new Roadster at a launch event in Waco, Texas, on Thursday.

Photo: Tesla, via Reuters

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,” Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster 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.”

However, the car still carries symbolic weight.

“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 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 US$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 US$50,000 deposit and a “Thrust” version with “acceleration thrusters” requiring a US$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 Roadster can accelerate from zero to 97kph in less than one second and can hit a top speed of more than 230mph (370kph), Tesla vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy said.

“Definitely much faster than that,” an excited Musk said. “I think you’ve got to crack halfway to the speed of sound.”

The Roadster can also travel more than 480km on a single charge. That is less than half of what Musk promised in 2017, when Tesla first revealed a prototype of the second-generation Roadster and said that deliveries would begin in 2020.