Tesla’s flying Roadster sells a SpaceX merger, not a car

Tesla has unveiled its long-delayed second-generation Roadster with some unexpected bells and whistles: using SpaceX-developed cold-gas thrusters to make the car flip and jump in mid-air. The event delivered spectacle but no price, and the Roadster’s most extraordinary figures belong to versions that will not be legal on public roads; Chief Executive Elon Musk claimed production will begin in 2028.

At a SpaceX test site near Waco, Texas, on 15 October, Chief Executive Elon Musk told the crowd: “You’re going to see the results of what happens when you have a collaboration with the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company,” Then the car drove upside down along a curved ramp, launched off the end, rotated and landed on its wheels, before later jumping over Tesla’s lineup, including the Semi. 

The engineering behind the stunt is unheard-of in a passenger vehicle. To make the thrusters work, compressed gas is stored in carbon-fibre overwrapped pressure vessels packed into every usable space. Tesla claims that the thrusters generate four to five times the force the tyres can handle, overcoming the traction limit that caps conventional acceleration. A fan system can hold the car upside down even when stationary, while active wings driven by actuators developed for Optimus deliver what Tesla claims is downforce approaching Formula 1 levels.

Tesla will offer three variants of the second-generation roadster, and unsurprisingly not all of them are road-legal. The road-going Performance model, by all impressions a conventional electric hypercar, seats just two and reaches 60mph in under 1.6 seconds, while the limited-run, race-ready Thrust adds rear thrusters and cuts that down to under 0.9 seconds. The sub-0.59-second sprint and top speed above 230mph belong to the single-seat, invite-only Rocket, which Tesla’s own website states is not actually approved for public roads.

Much has changed since the vehicle was first prototyped back in 2017. At the time, Tesla had promised 620 miles of range, a top speed above 250 mph and four seats in a 2×2 configuration. Production was supposed to kick off in 2020. The new car is a clear downgrade from these admittedly lofty figures: offering half the range and two seats at most. Still, Tesla is again asking for US$50,000 in deposits, with US$5,000 due immediately and a further US$45,000 within ten days, and US$250,000 for the Thrust. It has not disclosed prices, though it quoted a base price of US$200,000 in 2017.

The vehicle’s roadworthiness also seems to be an open question. The show car appears to lack exterior mirrors, and Musk literally conceded that the Roadster is “not necessarily a safety optimised car”. Asked whether it would be street-legal, he replied: “It depends on your street. It will be a roadworthy car.” Those questions arrive as Tesla is already due to explain to NHTSA by 30 October how its Cybercab meets federal standards without a steering wheel or pedals.

That the Roadster has re-emerged at all is something of a surprise, at least when taken on its own merits. Musk once dismissed the hypercar as a “small potato situation” for Tesla’s finances, and its timing arguably only underlines that. Tesla ended Model S and Model X production early in 2026 to make room for Optimus and the Cybercab. Its car sales have, at best, treaded water for the last two years. The automaker will report its third-quarter results on 21 October. 

The Roadster event is the latest example of why Elon can’t wait to bring (Tesla) and (SpaceX) together

Given the marginal-at-best impact the Roadster’s return will have on Tesla’s bottom line, perhaps the better approach is to interpret the event as a case for merging Tesla and SpaceX. Rather an unabashed one, too, and not one that was lost on many observers. “It was an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers,” said Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management. “The Roadster event is the latest example of why Elon can’t wait to bring (Tesla) and (SpaceX) together.” 

Musk has recently said Tesla overlaps “on so many fronts with SpaceX,” citing the companies’ Terafab chip project as one example. Since SpaceX acquired xAI, which also controls X (formerly known as Twitter), SpaceX-owned Grok AI is also featured in Tesla vehicles. Meanwhile, the reveal itself recalls the 2016 Solar Roof launch that preceded the automaker’s acquisition of SolarCity. 

The Roadster’s real product, then, is arguably the SpaceX association more so than the car itself. By Tesla’s own specification sheet, the road-legal version is a relatively unremarkably two-seat, 300-mile sports car with no price, arriving eight years late, while the flying stunts belong to a version few will buy and none can legally drive on public roads. Its significance lies less in what Tesla sells in 2028 than in how convincingly it makes the case for merging Musk’s companies.