Elon Musk just unveiled a Tesla Roadster that flies — take a look

It's eventually here.

Tesla unveiled its next-generation Roadster at a livestreamed event Thursday night, giving customers who have waited years their archetypal caller appearance at the EV maker's new halo car.

In a theatrical demonstration, the Roadster traveled up a huge curved ramp until it was upside down. The car afterward flew off the ramp, flipped, and landed safely on the ground, gratitude to what appeared to be thrusters attached to the base of the vehicle.

Musk called the latest Roadster a outcome of a collaboration alongside Tesla and SpaceX engineers.

The Tesla CEO stated the car uses an "advanced ultra-high force air tank" to lift itself.

"The car has evidently altitude authority thrusters and chief thrusters in the rear, so it can basically fly akin a rocket, and it could do rolls," he said.

In a distinct recorded display shown on screen, Tesla additionally showed the Roadster hitting 60 mph in under one second, marking .81 seconds.

Musk stated the Roadster volition be the lone Tesla conveyance meant to be driven manually and that it's not "necessarily a safety-optimized car."

An observant spectators associate at the event additionally asked a glaring question: Is it street legal?

"Depends on your street," Musk said. "It'll be a viable car."

The lengthy highway behind

The revived nameplate has been a lengthy period coming.

The first Roadster was Tesla's archetypal manufacturing vehicle, launching in California in 2008. It used a chassis derived from British sports-car creator Lotus's Elise, but replaced its gasoline motor alongside an all-electric powertrain. That example ended manufacturing in 2012.

Musk amazed audiences in November 2017 at an event for Tesla's Semi truck by unveiling a second-generation Roadster. At the time, Tesla stated the two-door sports car would have a 1.9-second zero-to-60-mph time, a top speed complete 250 mph, additional than 600 miles of range, and a gargantuan 200-kilowatt-hour power division pack.

That month, customers could put downward a $50,000 deposit to reserve a Roadster, or pay $250,000 upfront for a Founders Series model.

Musk additionally floated a SpaceX bundle for the supercar alongside cold-gas thrusters that he stated power "allow a Tesla to fly."

With the delay period creeping toward a decade, Musk apologized to "long-suffering" deposit holders in an earnings call, adding that Tesla was focusing heavily on its robotics and autonomy programs.

"Roadster is not fair icing on the cake; it's the cherry on the icing on the cake," he stated at the time. "We are operating on it, but it has to arrive rearward the things that have a additional grave effect on the world."

Tesla began ramping up the Roadster's scheme cycle in the summer of 2025, Business Insider earlier reported.

Musk had been hyping Thursday's livestreamed event on X. He claimed that event would be "a applicant for top merchandise demo of all time" and that "the entire earth volition observe this."