Tesla unveiled its second-generation Roadster at a SpaceX site in McGregor, Texas, revealing a two-seat electric sports car built with cold-gas thrusters engineered alongside SpaceX that let it jump, flip and land.
On stage, Tesla timed the car’s 0-to-60 mph acceleration at 0.81 seconds, with the company citing a top speed above 230 mph and more than 300 miles of range. The thruster system includes 10 nozzles fed by two carbon-overwrapped tanks holding roughly 250 kilograms of ultra-high-pressure air, rated for maneuvers up to 2g, alongside a fan-based suction system and active aerodynamics.
The car will be offered in three versions through Tesla’s reservation page: a Performance model, a Thrust version equipped with the acceleration thrusters requiring a reported $250,000 deposit, and an invite-only, single-seat Rocket version built with a full flight system.
Tesla did not announce pricing for any of the three versions, and production is not expected to begin until 2028, meaning buyers face a lengthy wait between reservation and delivery, with no guarantee the specifications or configurations shown on stage will carry through unchanged to the production version.
The reveal continues Tesla's pattern of unveiling ambitious vehicle concepts years ahead of production, a strategy that has generated significant publicity for the Roadster program since Musk first teased SpaceX thruster technology for the car nearly a decade ago, even as the company's actual delivery timelines for the project have repeatedly slipped.
