Tesla unveils next generation Roadster sports EV with SpaceX thrusters

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 15 — Tesla unveiled a redesigned Roadster equipped with thrusters on Thursday, 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 last month.

Musk and other executives did not specify any target prices at Thursday's event, although Tesla nearly a decade ago quoted a base price of $200,000 for the vehicle.

Tesla's reservation page for the Roadster after Thursday's event showed a "Performance" version of the vehicle requiring a $50,000 deposit and a "Thrust" version with "acceleration thrusters" requiring a $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 zero to ​60 miles per hour in less than one second and can hit a top speed of over 230 mph, 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 620 miles (1,000 km) 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 last year.

The original Roadster, released in 2008 ​and on sale until 2012, was Tesla's first-ever EV 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.

This year, 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.

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Chris Kirkham and Mrinmay Dey; Editing by Peter Henderson, Chris Reese ​and Tom Hogue)

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