The Tesla Roadster 2 Is Here—and It Flies

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On Thursday night, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk unveiled what’s been billed as the company’s last human-driven car. Maybe human-piloted is a more accurate way to say it.

At a demonstration event in McGregor, Texas—at SpaceX’s rocket development and testing facility—the new car did what Musk has long promised. With a herky-jerky burst of steam, it flew into the air. At one point, the car appeared to flip over the automaker’s entire line-up, floating several feet over its electric semi-truck. Tesla executives said the vehicle could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in one second.

“This is not necessarily a safety-optimized car,” Musk said. (It’s also likely to raise the eyebrows of federal regulators.)

Tesla says it will begin production on the Roadster 2 in 2028. Fans have waited a long time for the vehicle. The Roadster 2—the successor to Tesla’s first vehicle, the Roadster—was first announced in 2017, and at the time Tesla said the new sports car would be the fastest production vehicle in the world.

The “flying” technology is enabled by four thrusters, Tesla vehicle engineering head Lars Moravy said. He said the production version would “hopefully” travel up to 230 miles per hour, though Musk said he hoped to “crack halfway to the speed of sound”—around 385 mph. Modern Formula 1 vehicles usually top out around 220 mph. The company said the vehicle would travel more than 300 miles on one charge, middling for a mainstream EV and lower than most luxury vehicles. Tesla’s own Model 3 can travel up to 360 miles on a charge.

Tesla said the thrusters are powered by onboard compressed gas. Musk said that the same technology that allows the vehicle to fly will also create downward force that allows the vehicle to turn corners very quickly. “It’s going to crush every track record that has ever existed,” he said.

The company initially promised the Roadster 2 would ship in 2020. On Thursday, the Tesla team did mention the new timeline, but did not mention what the new car will cost. Musk has a long history of not following through on his loftiest product ambitions, and timelines for many Tesla releases have repeatedly missed targets.

The company posted on X that the Roadster 2 would come in three variants: a two-seater “Performance” road-ready version that lacks the thrusters Tesla showed off on Thursday; a “race ready” Thrust variant; and an “air ready” Rocket variant that has only one seat. The Tesla website lists the Rocket as “invite only” and the Thrust as “limited.” You can currently only place reservations for the Performance and Thrust versions.

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When it was first announced, enthusiasts put down $50,000 deposits for what was advertised as a $200,000 car. (That deposit is worth more than $68,000 in 2026 dollars.) Some got sick of waiting. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman complained on X last year that he had trouble canceling his reservation. Musk posted that Altman received a refund in 24 hours.

A reservation page posted on Tesla’s site now charges a $5,000 reservation fee for the Performance variant, with an additional $45,000 due within 10 days. The Thrust is available for an initial $5,000 fee, with $245,000 due within 10 days.

Musk has said that Tesla should no longer be regarded as a carmaker and that the company is focused on building autonomous vehicle technology and robots.

The unveiling event comes at a weird time for electric vehicles. Sales of EVs have stalled in the US after the GOP-led Congress nixed federal support. Meanwhile, the global energy crisis has EV sales booming elsewhere. Electric luxury hypercars—the class to which the Roadster 2 belongs—are in an especially tricky spot. Several luxury automakers have said that wealthy buyers are now looking for the sound and power of a typical gas-powered vehicle. Lamborghini shelved its plans to make an EV earlier this year.