Tesla unveiled a redesigned Roadster on Thursday (October 15) equipped with thrusters, nearly nine years after it first showed a next-generation version of its electric sports car and said it would start production in 2028.
Tesla demonstrated the two-seater vehicle, developed in collaboration with CEO Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX, showing it driving upside down on a ramp using a suction system and turning in the air and landing using in-built thrusters. The use and legality of such features on public roads were not immediately clear.
The Roadster can accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in less than one second and can hit a top speed of over 230 mph, Musk said at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas.
Tesla revealed a prototype of the car in 2017 and said then that deliveries would begin in 2020.
Musk has played down the car's importance to Tesla's finances, describing it in 2023 as a "small potato situation" that would not "move the needle in a major way financially."
But the car still carries symbolic weight.