Tesla unveils next generation Roadster sports EV with SpaceX thrusters

SAN FRANCISCO – Tesla unveiled a redesigned Roadster equipped with thrusters on Oct 15, nearly nine years after it first showed a next-generation version of its electric sports car and said it would start production in 2028.Tesla demonstrated the two-seater vehicle, developed in collaboration with CEO Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, showing it driving upside down on a ramp using a suction system and turning in the air and landing using in-built thrusters. The use and legality of such features on public roads were not immediately clear.Musk has played down the car’s importance to Tesla’s finances, describing it in 2023 as a “small potato situation” that would not “move the needle in a major way financially”.But the car still carries symbolic weight.“Tesla does not currently have a halo car, or high-performance luxury vehicle designed to showcase an automaker’s best engineering and technology. The Roadster will be Tesla’s new halo car,” Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said in a note in September.Musk and other executives did not specify any target prices at the Oct 15 event, although Tesla nearly a decade ago quoted a base price of US$200,000 (S$256,446) for the vehicle.Tesla’s reservation page for the Roadster after the Oct 15 event showed a “Performance” version of the vehicle requiring a US$50,000 deposit and a “Thrust” version with “acceleration thrusters” requiring a US$250,000 deposit. A “Rocket” variant, which Tesla says is “invite only”, is described as a single-seat model with a “full flight system”.The Roadster can accelerate from 0kmh to 96.5kmh in less than one second and can hit a top speed of over 370kmh, Musk said at a SpaceX ​test site in McGregor, Texas.Tesla revealed a prototype of the car in 2017 and said then that deliveries would begin in 2020.Musk had set high expectations in 2017, saying a four-seat Roadster would travel 1,000km on a single charge.Goldstein expects Tesla to sell around 2,000 Roadsters a year – a fraction of the 1.6 million vehicles Tesla sold in 2025.The original Roadster, released in 2008 and on sale until 2012, was Tesla’s first-ever electric vehicle and used a Lotus Elise chassis. It helped change the world’s view of what an electric vehicle could be. The company has since been known for its Model Y and Model X SUVs and Model S and Model 3 sedans.The reveal of the second-generation Roadster also comes amid a sharp shift in Tesla’s focus to artificial intelligence-led self-driving tech and robotics, from manufacturing cars for human drivers.In 2026, Tesla stopped selling Model S and X vehicles to make space for production of its Optimus humanoid robots. It also launched Cybercab - a two-seater robotaxi that comes without manual controls such as a steering wheel, pedals and mirrors. REUTERS