Tesla’s New Roadster Jumps, Flips, and Hits 60 in 0.81 Seconds — Here’s What It Didn’t Tell You
Nine years after the first prototype, Tesla showed a two-seat Roadster that drives upside down and leaps over a Semi on compressed-air thrusters. Price, range, and battery size are still missing.
Tesla finally showed the second-generation Roadster on Wednesday night, and the car that appeared at SpaceX's rocket test site in McGregor, Texas, has almost nothing in common with the 2017 prototype beyond the name. It is a two-seater, it carries compressed-air thrusters in its tail, and Tesla says it will reach 60 mph in 0.81 seconds. What Tesla did not say is how much it costs, how far it goes on a charge, or how big the battery is.
That matters because the original pitch was built on numbers. In 2017, Musk promised 0–60 in 1.9 seconds, a top speed above 250 mph, 620 miles of range, and a 200-kWh pack — the figures still carried in our Tesla Roadster price and specs guide. None of them were reconfirmed on Wednesday. The 0.81-second claim came from a live run on the launch pad with the rear thrusters firing and no on-screen timer, after a recorded attempt that showed about one second. Musk said the production car will be quicker still, and that top speed should pass 230 mph.
Air, not rocket fuel
The "thrusters" are cold-gas nozzles fed by two carbon-wrapped pressure vessels behind the seats, holding roughly 600 liters (158 gallons) of compressed air — about 550 pounds of it. There are 10 nozzles in total: four in the rear diffuser pointing backward, four at the corners pointing down for landings, and one on each front fender for lateral correction. Tesla quoted peak thrust at more than 80 kilonewtons. Musk said the tank can be refilled in the car, but gave no method or time.
The other trick is suction. Fans in the diffuser pull air from under the floor, and Tesla's Lars Moravy said the system lets the car corner at more than 2 g — well beyond what road tires manage alone. An active rear wing switches between high-downforce, low-drag, and a folded road mode. Steering, braking, and throttle are all by wire, and the driver gets a yoke.
Tesla put all of it on display without anyone inside. The cars ran autonomously with a Starman mannequin at the wheel, drove up a curved wall until they were nearly inverted, dropped from the top and landed on the downward thrusters, jumped over a lineup that included a Cybercab and a Semi, and finished with a standing flip. "Success is not guaranteed," Musk warned before the stunts. A jump across Idaho's Snake River Canyon is planned next, with no date.
Three versions, one of them by invitation
Tesla's order page now spells out the lineup. The base car is called Performance, described as "road ready with seating for two" with active aero and the multi-mode suction system but no thrusters. Above it sit two "augments." Thrust, marked Limited, is "race ready with seating for two" and adds the acceleration thrusters — the configuration that ran the 0.81-second sprint. Rocket, marked Invite Only, is "air ready with seating for one" and adds what Tesla calls a full flight system on top of everything else. The page also carries a footnote that the Rocket trim is not available in all regions.
The design is new from the ground up. The 2017 car was a 2+2; this one has two seats molded into the structure, doors that swing upward, a full-width light bar at each end, and white paint with gold-tinted glass that Tesla likened to Apollo-era spacesuits. Designer Franz von Holzhausen cited the SR-71 and the F-35 as references. The front suspension has moved inboard, which would free space for air lines.
Musk also drew a line around the car's place in the lineup: the Roadster will be the only Tesla a human drives in the long run, with every other new model going autonomous. He added that he is not sure the car will be legal in every jurisdiction, though it is meant to be sold and driven on public roads.
What's still missing
Tesla says production starts in 2028. The $50,000 reservation we covered last month is now split on the order page into $5,000 due today, listed as fully refundable, and $45,000 due within 10 days; Tesla says a reservation is not final until the full amount is paid and will be canceled if it isn't. The company has not said what happens to the deposits it took in 2017. There is no price for any of the three versions, no range figure, no battery capacity, no power output, and no production site. Of the four questions we asked before the reveal, Tesla answered only the one about timing — and pushed it to 2028.
For now, the honest reading is this: Tesla has shown that a car with air thrusters can jump, flip, and land on its wheels in a controlled demo with no one aboard. Whether a customer will be able to do any of that, where, and for how much, is a question for the next 18 months. The company's Roadster page is the place to watch for the first real spec sheet.
