Tesla Just Revealed The Roadster With A Truly Insane Demo. Here's What You Need To Know

The new Roadster can jump over a Semi truck and do 0-60 in 0.81 seconds, Tesla claims. But it's not actually available yet.

Photo by: Tesla

By: Mack Hogan

Updated: Oct 16, at 10:53am ET

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Tesla has revealed the second-generation Roadster, with a fully new design compared to the version shown in 2017.
The Roadster has cold gas thrusters that allow it to do barrel rolls and a suction system that allows it to drive upside down. The company demonstrated both of these capabilities at the event.
Musk says the new Roadster will arrive in 2028, though we don't have details on pricing, legality, range, or much else.

It's been a long road for the second-generation Tesla Roadster. First revealed in 2017 as a 2020 model, the car has faced numerous delays, with critics wondering if Tesla would ever deliver. Now, the company has a new version, which it showed off with a truly shocking demonstration at its event in McGregor, Texas.

The event started with the new Roadster driving upside down on a massive ramp, thanks to its suction fans. In case that wasn't enough, it then flipped off the ramp, doing a mid-air barrel roll with its cold gas thrusters to land right-side up. It was quite shocking.

(Update 10/16/26 at 10:42 ET: This story has been updated with more specifications, thanks to an interview published by Top Gear.)

Gallery: 2028 Tesla Roadster: The Reveal

Source: Tesla

"By the way, success is not guaranteed," CEO Elon Musk said before the demo. "It'll probably work," he added.

Tesla Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy said that the Roadster can generate up to 2Gs of suction. According to Musk, that extra downforce will enable it to shatter track records.

But the thrusters are the more impressive part. Right after the first demo, the company showed the Roadster hopping over a lineup of Tesla vehicles, doing another barrel roll in the process.

“So it can basically fly like a rocket. I can do rolls, it can do like crazy gymnastics, whatever you want, really," he said.

The system uses 10 nozzles and 200 liters of compressed gas for propellant, the company says. It'll allow the car to corner at up to 2G of force, far more than any existing car. Tesla's design and engineering bosses told Top Gear that it can be refilled in two to six hours using a compressed nitrogen system, and that they hope to get it down to more like thirty minutes.

Per Musk, the 0-60 time target time for the Roadster was less than 1 second. In reality, the company says they've measured 0-60 times as low as 0.81 seconds. And Musk says the production car will do better than that.

He also noted that using these features may not be legal in all jurisdictions. The company's order page confirms that the version with all 10 thrusters will not be street legal, but we're still unclear on if the rear-facing thrusters may somehow be legal. I'm skeptical that Tesla could get them past regulators, but we'll see.

The Roadster has a fan-powered suction system that the company claims will allow it to corner at up to 2G and hit 60 mph in 0.81 seconds or faster.

Photo by: Tesla

The company has gotten the top speed up to over 230 miles per hour, though Musk says the eventual target would be to get to half the speed of sound. Given that the speed of sound through the air is 767 mph, that means a target of around 383 mph.

The Roadster will be available in three versions. The Performance version comes with the suction fan system. If you want that 0.81-second 0-60 time, you need the Thrust version, which the retail site says will be "limited." But the truly mind-blowing 10-thruster setup is only available on the Rocket trim, which Tesla says is "invite only." So unless you're quite cozy with the big T, you probably won't be able to buy the barrel-rolling version of this electric supercar. All three versions required a refundable $50,000 deposit within ten days of reserving.

The electric powertrain in the top trim model puts down up to 1,341 horsepower. The base version's two motors produce up to 1,073 hp. But neither of them are dual-motor all-wheel-drive, per the video. All versions are rear-wheel-drive, with a motor for each wheel to enable torque vectoring, which should improve cornering. Range is a claimed 310 to 320 miles, far, far below the originally promised figure of 620 miles.

The Roadster also supports 500 kW fast charging, Tesla execs say in the video, enabling a 10-80% charge time of just 10 minutes. That may not be best-in-class globally, but it's better than any EV on sale in the United States today.

The reservation page for the Tesla Roadster.

Photo by: Tesla

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Now, it's important to note here that the last Tesla Roadster reveal event was jaw-dropping in its day, with lots of impossible sounding specs. But after nine years of the company failing to deliver, any benefit of the doubt is mostly gone. Musk says it'll be on sale in 2028 "for real," but has blown past delivery dates many times in the past. The company also did not announce. So if you're putting down 50 large on a new Roadster reservation, you're going in mostly blind.

The Roadster, then, looks truly other-wordly. The challenge, though, remains the same: Actually delivering it.