Tesla Roadster Unveiled With SpaceX Thrusters: 2028 Production, Specs

Elon Musk’s carmaker showed off a reworked version of its electric sports car on Thursday, fitted with rocket-style propulsion built in partnership with his space company. It said the vehicle will start rolling off the line in 2028, more than a decade after it first previewed a next-generation model. Executives said in May that the car will be made in Texas.

The white two-seater drove upside down along a ramp, held in place by a suction system, then turned in the air and landed using built-in thrusters. Later in the event, the car used the thrusters to jump over a truck and other vehicles, twisting as it flew.

The demonstration took place at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas, and carried the hallmarks of a classic Elon Musk product launch: dramatic music, smoke, hissing machinery and a launch countdown. The event had originally been set for Oct. 1, but Musk postponed it, citing high winds. Musk told a cheering crowd of enthusiasts and investors that the car was the product of close work between Tesla and SpaceX engineers and looked like nothing seen in film.

Tesla’s vehicle engineering chief, Lars Moravy, said the Roadster can accelerate from zero to 60 mph (97 kph) in under one second and reach a top speed above 230 mph (370 kph). Musk said the car would be considerably faster than that and suggested it could reach half the speed of sound. Tesla says the car can travel more than 300 miles (480 km) on one charge, less than half the range Musk promised in 2017, when the company first showed a prototype of the second-generation Roadster and said deliveries would start in 2020.

Musk and other executives gave no target prices on Thursday, although Tesla quoted a base price of $200,000 almost a decade ago. After the event, Tesla’s reservation page listed a “Performance” version requiring a $50,000 deposit and a “Thrust” version with acceleration thrusters requiring 250,000 dollars. A third variant, called “Rocket” and described as invite-only, is a single-seat model with what Tesla calls a full flight system.

Some market watchers viewed the collaboration as Musk building interest in a merger of the two companies he controls, an idea he has explored by discussing their overlap. Musk has said any such combination would require proper processes. Gene Munster, a managing partner at Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management, called the demo an engineering showpiece with no commercial value beyond showing up traditional automakers. He said on X that it illustrates why Musk is eager to bring Tesla and SpaceX together.

Tesla shares rose 5% in premarket trading on Friday. The stock was down about 20% this year heading into the event, the weakest performer among the Magnificent Seven group of large technology companies, according to FactSet data.

The reveal gives Tesla a showpiece car after years of missed Roadster deadlines. Musk played down the car’s financial importance in 2023, calling it a minor matter that would not shift Tesla’s finances in a major way. Still, Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein wrote last month that Tesla has no halo car, meaning a high-performance luxury model designed to showcase an automaker’s best engineering, and said the Roadster would fill that role.

Viewers reacted enthusiastically. Tesla investor and fan Sawyer Merritt wrote on X that it was the most remarkable product demo he had ever seen. He said he watched it in person and still found himself wondering how it was not computer-generated.

The original Roadster, sold from 2008 to 2012, was Tesla’s first electric vehicle and was built on a Lotus Elise chassis. It helped reshape perceptions of what an EV could be. The company has since become known for the Model S and Model 3 sedans and the Model X and Model Y SUVs.

The new reveal comes as Tesla shifts its focus from building cars for human drivers toward artificial intelligence, self-driving technology and robotics. This year, the company stopped selling the Model S and Model X to free up space for production of its Optimus humanoid robot, and it launched the Cybercab, a two-seat robotaxi without a steering wheel, pedals or mirrors. Sales of Tesla’s aging lineup have fallen over the past two years, although high gas prices lifted third-quarter deliveries.

Tesla is due to report third-quarter results on Oct. 21. Josh Gilbert, lead Asia-Pacific analyst at trading platform eToro, said margin and cash flow figures will weigh far more with investors than anything shown at the revea