The Tesla Roadster can fly. It is the announcement that might change the car industry forever. Elon Musk discloses the Roadster's ability to get off the ground. The model is developed in partnership with SpaceX.
While we are expecting the Roadster to fly, we are still waiting for the Roadster to go into production, something that Elon Musk, once again, overpromised and underdelivered.
The second-generation Tesla Roadster was first teased in 2014, two years after the first-gen Roadster went out of production. But that was a decade ago. Elon Musk confirmed its arrival in December 2016. One year later, Tesla unexpectedly showed a prototype of the model alongside its Semi on November 16, 2017, announcing that it would be available starting in 2020.
But 2020 came and went, and the Tesla Roadster is still nowhere in sight. Later that year, Elon Musk claimed production would start in the next 12 to 18 months. In January 2021, the brand's CEO said it would be delayed until 2022. Then, September 2022 brought another delay: until 2023. Then 2024. And then 2025. Are you anticipating what will happen in 2025? That's right, we think so, too.
Tesla was planning to roll it out with a starting price of $250,000 for the base model and $250,000 for the Foundation Series, available during the first year of production. However, just like it happened with the Cybertruck, the price vanished from the website. However, customers can reserve a Roadster for $50,000: $45,000 due within ten days and $5,000 due on the day of the reservation.
Photo: Tesla
Now, being advertised as the world's quickest car, with a sub-one-second run from 0 to 60 mph, is not enough anymore. Besides, Elon Musk said that would be the least interesting of the Tesla Roadster's features.
Musk has been flirting with the idea of having the Roadster fly. Earlier this year, the Tesla CEO tweeted about the company increasing the design goals for the model. "There will never be another car like this if you could even call it a car. Tesla/SpaceX collab," he explained on X.
Tesla Owners Silicon Valley asked him if the not-quite-a-car can actually fly a little, to which Musk replied using an emoji showing a pair of eyes.
Four months later, Elon Musk says it clearly with a post on X: "The new Tesla Roadster can fly," leaving everyone baffled. That was it. No further information about how high, how long, and how fast.
What we do know is that the Tesla Roadster, equipped with the SpaceX package, should come with cold air thrusters that might make it fly. But if it can fly just like the Cybertruck can swim, we have our doubts about its aerial capabilities. Musk previously said that the pickup truck would be able to serve as a boat to traverse to traverse at least 100m (328 feet) of water. We haven't seen that yet.
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