Elon Musk unveils Tesla Roadster fitted with SpaceX thrusters

American billionaire Elon Musk unveiled a redesigned Tesla Roadster on Thursday, a two-seat electric sports car fitted with thrusters developed with his rocket company SpaceX, and said production would begin in 2028.

Musk presented the car on the evening of Oct. 15 at SpaceX's rocket test site in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Tesla first showed a prototype of the next-generation Roadster in November 2017 and said deliveries would start in 2020. The program then missed a string of deadlines, including several reveal dates this year. On Thursday, Musk put the start of production at "2028, actually."

Thrusters and pricing

The Roadster uses cold-gas thrusters, which release compressed gas rather than burning fuel, stored in carbon-fiber pressure tanks built into the car. In demonstrations, a driverless, remotely operated car turned and landed in the air using the thrusters and drove upside down on a curved ramp, held in place by a fan system that sucks air from beneath the body.

Musk said the car can accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in under one second and reach a top speed of more than 230 mph. The 2017 prototype was promised with a 1.9-second sprint to 60 mph and a range of 620 miles on a single charge.

Tesla did not give a price for any version. The company quoted a $200,000 base price nearly a decade ago. Its reservation page now lists three versions. A "Performance" model requires a $50,000 deposit, with $5,000 due upfront and the rest within 10 days. A "Thrust" model with rear acceleration thrusters requires a $250,000 deposit. A single-seat "Rocket" variant with what Tesla calls a "full flight system" is offered by invitation only, and Tesla says it is not approved for public roads.

Musk also described the Roadster as "not necessarily a safety-optimized car" and said he was "not sure it's necessarily legal in all jurisdictions."

Market reaction

Tesla shares rose nearly 5% in premarket trading on Friday after the reveal.

Analysts doubt the car will add much to Tesla's finances. Seth Goldstein, an analyst at Morningstar, called the Roadster Tesla's new "halo car," a showcase for its best engineering, and expects sales of about 2,000 a year. Tesla sold 1.6 million vehicles last year. Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said, "It was an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers."

Musk himself played down the car's financial weight in 2023, calling it a "small potato situation" that would not "move the needle in a major way financially."

The original Roadster, built on a Lotus Elise chassis and sold from 2008 to 2012, was Tesla's first car and helped launch the company Musk has led since 2008. Tesla is now steering its business toward self-driving software and robots. It stopped selling the Model S sedan and Model X SUV this year to free up factory space for its Optimus humanoid robot and has launched the Cybercab, a two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals.

Tesla reports third-quarter results on Oct. 21.