Tesla Unveils the New Roadster: Three Trims, Thrusters and a 2028 Date, Checked Against Every Leak and Patent
By EV Bandit | Updated after the event, October 15, 2026. First published before the stream.
Key takeaways
- Tesla showed the second-generation Roadster at SpaceX's test site in McGregor, Texas, in three configurations: Performance, Thrust and Rocket.
- Tesla claims 0 to 60 mph in under 1.6 s (Performance), under 0.9 s (Thrust) and under 0.59 s (Rocket), more than 300 miles of range and a top speed above 230 mph.
- No price was announced. The $50,000 (Performance) and $250,000 (Thrust) figures are reservation payments; the Rocket is invite only.
- Musk put production in 2028. No plant was named on stage; Teslarati reports Giga Texas.
- Tesla engineering VP Lars Moravy said the car uses 10 thrusters connected to 600 liters of compressed air, per TechCrunch.
Tesla showed the second-generation Roadster on Thursday night at SpaceX's test site in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. The car drove up a curved ramp, hung upside down on fan suction, fired cold gas thrusters, flipped in mid-air and landed upright. It then jumped a row of Tesla vehicles. What Tesla did not give was a price. Musk put production in 2028.
We wrote this page before the stream, to have a record to check the night against. The pre-event sections are kept below as written. Each one now notes what held up and what did not. The scorecard at the end is filled in.
Replay: Tesla's Roadster livestream on X.
Read this first: every spec below is a Tesla claim from the event or its own posts. None has been independently tested, and no customer car exists yet.
Read this first: every spec below is a Tesla claim from the event or its own posts. None has been independently tested, and no customer car exists yet.
What Tesla announced
Tesla split the car into three configurations. The details come from Tesla's posts after the stream, as reported by Electrek, Teslarati and TechCrunch.
| Performance | Thrust | Rocket | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla's label | “road ready” | “race ready” | “air ready” |
| Seats | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 0 to 60 mph (Tesla claim) | Under 1.6 s | Under 0.9 s | Under 0.59 s |
| Thrusters | None; active aero and a “multi-mode suction system” | Rear-mounted cold gas thrusters | Thrusters around the perimeter for forward, upward and rotational movement |
| Reservation payment | $50,000 | $250,000 | Invite only |
| Availability | By reservation | Limited release | Invite only |
Range and top speed. Tesla quotes more than 300 miles of range and a top speed above 230 mph. Outlets disagree on which configurations those figures cover. TechCrunch applies both to every trim. Electrek ties the top speed to the Rocket.
Price. None. Musk did not name a sale price for any configuration, and the $50,000 and $250,000 figures are reservation payments listed on Tesla's site. Electrek reports the Performance terms as $5,000 up front, which Tesla calls fully refundable, plus $45,000 within 10 days.
Production. Musk said 2028. Electrek quotes him as saying “2028, actually.” No plant was named on stage. Teslarati reports Giga Texas, which matches Tesla's earlier statements.
The hardware. Tesla engineering VP Lars Moravy said the car uses 10 thrusters connected to 600 liters of compressed air, in a tank that can be recharged, per TechCrunch. Tesla says the thrusters produce four to five times the force the tires can handle. A fan and ground-sealing system pulls air from under the car, which Teslarati reports produces “enough suction to hold it upside down even when stationary.” In Track Mode the car lowers and deploys active wings, and Electrek reports Tesla's claim of downforce “approaching F1 levels.”
The design. It is angular and white, and Tesla says it took inspiration from the SR-71 and F-35. Electrek lists hidden headlights, a full-width taillight, a steer-by-wire yoke, a fixed seat position and magnesium, titanium and carbon fiber construction. We found no coverage that says whether the roof is fixed or removable.
Road use. Tesla notes the car is not approved for public road use, per Teslarati. That note does not square with the Performance trim being called “road ready,” and Tesla has not explained it. Electrek says the Rocket is not approved for public roads.
“Turns out the future does have flying cars.” Elon Musk, per Fox Business
Musk was also blunt about what the car is not. Engadget's live blog quotes him: “This is not necessarily a safety-optimized car.” On revenue, TechCrunch quotes him as “not sure it moves the needle massively from a revenue standpoint.”
What changed from the 2017 promise
| Spec | Promised in 2017 | Claimed in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 60 mph | 1.9 s | Under 1.6 s (Performance), down to under 0.59 s (Rocket) |
| Range | 620 miles | More than 300 miles |
| Top speed | Over 250 mph | Over 230 mph |
| Seats | 4 (2+2) | 2, or 1 in the Rocket |
| Price | $200,000 base; $250,000 Founders Series | Not announced |
| Production | 2020 | 2028 |
Acceleration got better. Range, top speed and seating all got worse. Electrek points out that the range and seating cuts matter most to 2017 depositors, who reserved a four-seat, 620-mile car.
The road to tonight
| Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 16, 2017 | Prototype revealed at the Semi event. $200,000 base, $250,000 Founders Series, production promised for 2020. | Electrek; Wikipedia |
| Jun 2018 | Musk announces a “SpaceX option package” with cold gas thrusters. | Wikipedia |
| May 2021 | Musk tweets 1.1 seconds 0 to 100 km/h with the rocket option. | Wikipedia |
| Feb 28, 2024 | Musk says design goals were “radically increased,” targeting 0 to 60 mph in under one second. | Wikipedia |
| Nov 2025 | Demo pushed to April 1, 2026; production moved to 2027 or 2028. | Electrek; Wikipedia |
| Sep 12, 2026 | “Go for launch” teaser sets an October 1 event in Waco. | Teslarati |
| Sep 18, 2026 | Reservations reopen in the U.S. and Canada. | Drive Tesla Canada |
| Sep 28, 2026 | October 1 event called off. Tesla says the show “can only be held outdoors”; Musk later cites high winds. | Electrek; Teslarati |
| Oct 15, 2026 | Rescheduled event and first-ever livestream of a Roadster reveal. | Teslarati |
Electrek counts at least six production slips and seven unveil dates. Its Tuesday preview sums up the record bluntly: nearly nine years later, Tesla “hasn't delivered a single one.”
The patents: what Tesla has actually filed
Three Tesla filings have been tied to the Roadster by the press. None of them names the Roadster, and two show drawings of other cars or unnamed coupes. They tell you what Tesla engineers have protected, not what ships.
| Filing | What it covers | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
|
US 12,746,987 B1, “Electric Fan Car” Filed Jan 17, 2024; granted Sep 29, 2026 |
Four electrically driven ducted fans in the rear diffuser pull air from an underbody inlet, pressing the car to the road. The abstract describes “a ducted fan system configured to increase downforce and reduce drag.” Teslarati reads the filing as promising downforce that does not depend on vehicle speed. | The drawings show a Model S, and the patent does not mention the Roadster. |
|
US 2026/0285418 A1, “Deployable and Active Rear Wing Assembly with Safety Features” Filed Aug 2025; published Sep 24, 2026; inventors David Lemire and James Michael Arthur Crook |
A two-element wing that sits flush in road mode, deploys for downforce, flattens for a drag-reduction mode, and retracts before a predicted rear impact. Electrek quotes the filing at “0 kg of downforce in DRS mode, and up to 700 kg of downforce in high downforce mode at top speed.” GPS can switch it to a track mode on a known circuit. | This is a published application, not a granted patent. The drawings show a fixed-roof two-door coupe, and Carscoops cautions “we can't say that this is the production Roadster.” |
|
US 12,377,920, ground-effect “fan car” Reported by Electrek, Aug 2025; designer David Lemire |
Underbody fans plus side skirts that seal the low-pressure area, with modes for smooth tracks, rough roads, speed, weight transfer and GPS-mapped corners, and a filter for dust and pebbles. | Electrek noted it never mentions “fly,” “flight,” “thruster,” “rocket” or “lift.” It is a downforce device, the opposite of flight. |
Two of the three filings push the car down onto the road. None of them makes it leave the ground.
That is the most useful thing the patents told you before the event. If Tesla showed a car glued to a wall or a ceiling, the fan patents would explain how. If it showed a car hopping off the ground, that would have to come from the separate cold gas thruster package. Tesla has not described that package in any filing we found.
After the event: the pre-event read held. The lift came from the thrusters. The fans did what the fan-car patents describe: Tesla's fan and ground-sealing system held the car upside down on the ramp. Tesla also showed active wings that deploy in Track Mode, consistent with the wing application. Tesla did not cite any patent numbers on stage.
The leaks and reports, checked
| Report | Before the event | After the event | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thruster package reportedly code-named A71, possibly cutting 0 to 60 mph to about one second | Unconfirmed | Thrusters confirmed; the A71 code name did not come up in coverage we reviewed | Teslarati |
| Demo scaled back from “flying” to “a short hover”; demo car “remote-operated and not street-legal” | Reported, unconfirmed | Wrong on scale: the car jumped and flipped rather than hovering. Whether it was remote-operated is unclear; Engadget's live blog reports an Optimus robot in the driver's seat | Electrek |
| Vehicle may run unmanned, with spectators held several hundred yards back | Unconfirmed | Not addressed in coverage we reviewed | Teslarati |
| FAA closed airspace up to 10,000 feet around the site from Sep 18 to Oct 2; a separate October 14 restriction has been reported, possibly for a rehearsal | Closure reported; purpose unconfirmed | Event held at the McGregor site; rehearsal purpose still unconfirmed | Teslarati |
| Venue is near SpaceX's McGregor rocket test site | Reported | Confirmed: SpaceX test site in McGregor, per Fox Business | Teslarati; NewsCord aggregation |
| Images on Tesla's website appear to suggest cold gas thrusters | Interpretation of teaser images | Confirmed: cold gas thrusters on the Thrust and Rocket | Engadget |
| Teasers point to a redesign with “Cyber” styling, different from the 2017 prototype | Reported, unconfirmed | Confirmed: Electrek describes “cyberfication” styling | Electrek; Teslarati |
| Wing patent drawings show a fixed roof, unlike the removable-roof 2+2 of 2017 | Patent drawing, not confirmed design | Not settled; coverage we reviewed does not describe the roof | Carscoops |
| Tesla calls the car “the quickest vehicle in the world, with record-setting acceleration, range, and performance” | Tesla marketing claim | Still a claim; no independent test exists | The Supercar Blog |
Musk set expectations high. Per Engadget, he posted that the Roadster “is a candidate for greatest product demo of all time,” and added: “Let's just say that this demo will be a BANGER, probably metaphorically, though some chance literally.”
The 2017 spec sheet
| Spec | 2017 claim | Before the event |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 60 mph | 1.9 seconds | Musk: 2.1 s base before thrusters (2019); under 1 s target (2024) |
| 0 to 100 km/h | Not stated | Musk: 1.1 s with the rocket option (2021) |
| Quarter mile | 8.88 seconds | Never demonstrated |
| Top speed | Over 250 mph | Never demonstrated |
| Range | 620 miles | Never demonstrated |
| Battery | 200 kWh | Questioned in 2017 by Bloomberg analyst Salim Morsy |
| Wheel torque | 10,000 Nm (7,400 lb-ft) | Unverified |
| Layout | Three motors, AWD with torque vectoring, 2+2 seats, removable roof | Wing patent drawings show a fixed roof |
| Price | $200,000 base; $250,000 Founders Series | Final price not yet set |
The SpaceX option, as Musk described it in 2018, uses about ten cold gas thrusters fed by composite overwrapped pressure vessels, the same tank type used on Falcon 9, at a working pressure of 10,000 psi. It would replace the rear seats. Musk said at the time: “I'm not joking.” On the Joe Rogan Experience he went further: “maybe it can hover like a meter above the ground, or something like that.”
Reservations: what buyers are paying
Tesla reopened Roadster reservations on September 18, Drive Tesla Canada reports. In the U.S., it is $5,000 by card and then $45,000 by wire within 10 days, $50,000 in total. In Canada, it is $6,000 by card, which Tesla lists as “Fully refundable,” and then $58,000 by wire, $64,000 in total. Tesla's terms say: “Reservations are not final until the wire transfer payment is received.” After the event, Tesla's site lists $250,000 for the Thrust configuration; still no final price or delivery date has been published.
The open question before the event was what happens to the 2017 reservation holders. Electrek, whose author holds Roadster reservations through Tesla's referral program, wanted “a straight answer on what happens to the 2017 reservations.” The stream did not give a clear one.
What the major outlets expected
Electrek: a stunt until proven otherwise
Electrek calls the event “a stunt.” It argues the thrusters “do nothing for you on a normal drive.” Its checklist is a production car, a real price, a real production start, and an answer for 2017 depositors. “I have a hard time getting excited about Thursday,” the author writes.
Teslarati: downforce you can switch on at any speed
Teslarati's reading of the fan patent is that it adds grip at low speed, in slow corners and under hard braking, where wings do little. The fans can ease off on the highway so they do not add drag. It also notes the precedent: a similar fan design, on the Brabham BT46B, was banned in Formula 1.
Carscoops and Not a Tesla App: watch the rear of the car
Both outlets read the active wing filing as a possible preview of the production body. Not a Tesla App adds the caveat that a patent does not guarantee “immediate production integration, let alone that this tech is for the Roadster.”
After the stream: Electrek's verdict
Electrek calls the engineering real, especially the combination of thrusters, fans and wings in one car. It argues that the headline stunts belong to the invite-only and limited, non-road-legal trims, and it doubts that the stunt features would be covered by warranty.
MotorTrend and the physics question
As summarized by Tech Insider, MotorTrend thought a brief hover or hop near the ground was more realistic than sustained flight. On the night, the car hopped, flipped and jumped rather than flying for any length of time.
Wall Street: a halo car, not a volume car
Wire coverage, aggregated by NewsCord, quotes Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein: “The Roadster will be Tesla's new halo car.” He projects roughly 2,000 a year. Musk himself called the program a “small potato situation” financially in 2023. Tesla reports Q3 earnings on October 21, so expect analysts to ask about Roadster production plans there.
The scorecard: promises against the night
The right-hand column comes from the stream and from Tesla's posts afterward, as reported by the outlets linked below.
| Question | Pre-event record | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Is the production design shown? | Teasers suggest a redesign; patent drawings show a fixed-roof coupe | An angular redesign with SR-71 and F-35 cues was shown. Coverage we reviewed does not say whether it is final production spec |
| Price | $200,000 / $250,000 (2017); final price not set | Not announced. Reservation payments: $50,000 Performance, $250,000 Thrust; Rocket invite only |
| Production start and plant | 2027 or 2028, built in Texas | 2028, per Musk. No plant named on stage; Teslarati reports Giga Texas |
| 0 to 60 mph | 1.9 s (2017); under 1 s target | Tesla claims under 1.6 s (Performance), under 0.9 s (Thrust) and under 0.59 s (Rocket). The demo showed about one second, per TechCrunch |
| Range | 620 miles (2017) | More than 300 miles (Tesla claim) |
| Thrusters or “SpaceX package” | Musk claims only; code name A71 reported | Confirmed: 10 cold gas thrusters fed by 600 liters of compressed air, per Lars Moravy via TechCrunch |
| Fan-car downforce or active wing | Patented, not confirmed for Roadster | Both shown: fan and ground-sealing suction, plus active wings in Track Mode |
| Does the demo car leave the ground? | Reported scale-back to a short hover | Yes. It drove up a ramp, hung inverted, flipped in mid-air and jumped a row of Tesla vehicles |
| 2017 reservation holders | No answer on record | No clear answer. Engadget's live blog says the $50,000 deposits apply to the Performance model (single-sourced) |
| Did the event start on time? | 7:55 p.m. CT scheduled | About six minutes late: Engadget logs the start at 9:01 p.m. ET against 8:55 scheduled (single-sourced) |
Frequently asked questions
How much does the new Tesla Roadster cost?
No price has been announced. Musk did not name a sale price for any configuration, and the $50,000 and $250,000 figures are reservation payments listed on Tesla's site.
When will the new Tesla Roadster go into production?
Musk said 2028. No plant was named on stage. Teslarati reports Giga Texas, which matches Tesla's earlier statements.
How fast is the new Tesla Roadster from 0 to 60 mph?
Tesla claims under 1.6 s for the Performance, under 0.9 s for the Thrust and under 0.59 s for the Rocket. None has been independently tested.
What range does the new Tesla Roadster have?
Tesla quotes more than 300 miles of range, down from the 620 miles promised in 2017.
Is the new Tesla Roadster street legal?
Tesla notes the car is not approved for public road use, per Teslarati, which does not square with the Performance trim being called road ready. Electrek says the Rocket is not approved for public roads.
For reporters and researchers
Suggested citation: “EV Bandit, Tesla Unveils the New Roadster: Every Leak, Patent and Promise Checked, October 15, 2026.” Each row links back to a named source below. If you hold a primary document that settles an unconfirmed row, send it through evbandit.com and we will correct the record.
Suggested citation: “EV Bandit, Tesla Unveils the New Roadster: Every Leak, Patent and Promise Checked, October 15, 2026.” Each row links back to a named source below. If you hold a primary document that settles an unconfirmed row, send it through evbandit.com and we will correct the record.
Related reading
Tesla's Roadster event: the short claims ledger · The Automations app timeline · Track Mode on a non-Performance Model Y
Sources
Electrek, “Tesla unveils Cyberfied new Roadster that can kickflip,” Oct. 15, 2026
Teslarati, Roadster configurations and specs, Oct. 15, 2026
TechCrunch, Roadster reveal, Oct. 15, 2026
Fox Business, Roadster flying debut, Oct. 15, 2026
Electrek, Roadster event preview, Oct. 13, 2026
Electrek, active rear wing patent, Sep. 25, 2026
Electrek, fan car patent analysis, Aug. 6, 2025
Teslarati, Roadster livestream preview, Oct. 13, 2026
Teslarati, fan patent, Sep. 29, 2026
Tesla Oracle, “Electric Fan Car” patent, Oct. 7, 2026
SlashGear, fan car patent, Oct. 3, 2026
Carscoops, spoiler patent and body design, Oct. 1, 2026
Not a Tesla App, active wing patent, Sep. 26, 2026
Drive Tesla Canada, reservations reopen, Sep. 18, 2026
Engadget, Roadster reveal live blog, Oct. 15, 2026
The Supercar Blog, what to expect, Oct. 14, 2026
Tech Insider, flying claim and physics, Oct. 15, 2026
NewsCord, six-outlet comparison, Oct. 15, 2026
Wikipedia, Tesla Roadster (second generation)
Related coverage from EV Bandit
- How the New Roadster Does Its Three Tricks: Fans, Thrusters and Wings, Explained Claim by Claim
- Can the New Roadster Run Its Own Stunts? Musk Says Yes, Tesla's Designer Says Limited FSD
- The New Tesla Roadster Is in a Los Angeles Museum Lobby Through Tuesday: a field guide
Join the conversation. Was this a real launch: three trims and a 2028 date, but no price and a car that lost half its promised range? Tell us in the 255,000-member Tesla Model Y Owners group on Facebook.