The demonstration took place at the SpaceX test site in McGregor, where the two-seat Roadster was developed together with Elon Musk’s space company. During the demo, the car was first held on the ramp by a suction system, and then used its built-in engines to jump over a truck.
Tesla chief engineer Lars Moravy said the sports car accelerates to 97 km/h in less than a second and reaches 370 km/h. Elon Musk corrected him, saying: “Definitely much faster. I think it will exceed half the speed of sound”.
According to the presentation, on a single charge the Roadster will travel more than 480 km. That is less than half of what Musk promised in 2017, when the company had already shown a prototype and named a 2020 start for deliveries; Tesla did not announce prices then.
Preordering the Performance version requires a $50,000 deposit, while the Thrust version with “boost engines” costs $250,000. The single-seat Rocket with a “full flight system” is available by invitation only.
Some observers saw the joint project as Musk’s attempt to stir interest in a merger between Tesla and SpaceX. Musk himself said in 2023 that the Roadster should not seriously affect the company’s finances, and Tesla is increasingly shifting its focus to self-driving cars and robots.
This year the company stopped selling the Model S and X to free up capacity for producing Optimus robots. Tesla will publish its third-quarter report on October 21. In September, the company also began transporting passengers in the two-seat Cybercab robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals, and the Robotaxi service operates in six U.S. cities.
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