New Tesla Roadster: Electric Car Defies Gravity with Rocket Thrusters

Tesla has unveiled a redesigned version of its electric sports car, the Roadster, equipped with rocket thrusters, nearly nine years after showing the prototype for the new generation, announcing its intention to begin producing the car in 2028.

The company showcased the two-seater vehicle, developed in collaboration with SpaceX, owned by CEO Elon Musk, appearing driving upside down on a slope using a suction system before spinning in the air and landing with the help of integrated thrusters. It also flew over a row of cars.

It was not immediately clear how feasible it would be to use these technologies on public roads or their compatibility with traffic laws.

Musk had downplayed the financial importance of the car for Tesla in 2023, describing it as a limited-impact project that would not significantly change the company's financial results.

Musk and other Tesla officials did not specify target prices during the unveiling ceremony of the new car, although Tesla had announced a base price of $200,000 for the vehicle about a decade ago.

The company also presented the Rocket edition, available only by special invitation, which is a single-seat car equipped with what Tesla described as an "integrated flight system."

Musk said during the presentation held at a SpaceX test site in Texas that the Roadster can accelerate from zero to approximately 97 kilometers per hour in less than a second, while its top speed exceeds 370 kilometers per hour.

Old Prototype and Postponed Plans
Tesla had revealed a prototype of the car in 2017 and announced then that deliveries would begin in 2020, but those plans have been postponed eight times since the prototype was shown.

Elon Musk raised expectations at the time when he said that the car, which was planned to have four seats, would be able to travel about 1,000 kilometers on a single charge.

The original Roadster, launched in 2008 and sold until 2012, was the first electric car produced by Tesla and relied on the chassis of the Lotus Elise. It contributed to changing global perceptions regarding the capabilities of electric vehicles.

The company later became famous for its Model Y and Model X sport utility vehicles, along with the Model S and Model 3 sedans.

The unveiling of the second-generation Roadster comes at a time when Tesla is undergoing a major strategic shift, with increasing focus on AI-powered autonomous driving technologies and robots, rather than just manufacturing human-driven cars.

The company halted sales of the Model S and Model X this year to make room for the production of its humanoid robot, Optimus.

It also launched the self-driving taxi Cybercab, a two-seater car without traditional controls such as a steering wheel, pedals, and mirrors.

"Supercar"
Tesla abandoned the Roadster design it presented in 2017 after studying various directions for developing the car, before settling on its new design. The electric car giant built the new design on a lightweight carbon fiber structure, instead of relying on the engineering architecture of its current cars, a step that makes the Roadster closer to the hypercar category than a traditional sports car.

Tesla's design teams studied ideas inspired by some details from classic sports cars like the Lamborghini Countach, and even from the design of the American reconnaissance aircraft SR-71 Blackbird.

The Roadster has become one of Tesla's longest-delayed projects over the past years. When the company revealed the prototype in 2017, it opened reservations for $50,000 for the standard edition, while reservations for the limited-production Founder's Series reached $250,000.

But the production date scheduled for 2020 passed without the car reaching the market, before the project fell down Tesla's priority list as the company focused on increasing production of the Model 3 and Model Y, then developing the Cybertruck, Cybercab, and autonomous driving and Optimus robot projects.