On Thursday night (15), Tesla presents the second generation of the Roadster electric sports car. The announcement comes almost nine years after the automaker first showed the new generation of the car.
The prototype was revealed in 2017 with a price of US$200,000 and initial deliveries expected in 2020. The list price has not been updated since then, but reservations remain active upon payment of US$50,000.
In October 2025, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, stated that the new Roadster could "fly". The statement occurred during an interview with Joe Rogan's podcast, in which the executive confirmed that the development of the sports car was still ongoing.
During the conversation, Musk cited the frustration that there are no flying cars in the world today. The executive concluded by saying that people should be able to buy one.
Asked whether the company is developing an electric flying vehicle and whether the model will have retractable wings, Musk avoided confirming the characteristics.
The executive said that the Roadster launch event will be “unforgettable” and stated that the model has technology considered “very crazy”.
In the interview, Musk even questioned whether the vehicle can still be classified as a car, despite maintaining the look of an automobile.
In the comparison made by the businessman, the new Roadster brings together more insane features than all the James Bond character vehicles combined.
Impact on results
Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, downplayed the car's importance to the company's finances. In 2023, the executive described the project as a small situation that would not significantly change the financial results.
Still, the model carries symbolic weight. Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said in a note in September that Tesla does not currently have a high-performance luxury vehicle to showcase its best engineering and technology. According to the expert, the Roadster will take on this role.
When announcing the prototype in 2017, Musk indicated that the four-seater version would have a range of 1,000 kilometers on a single charge. In 2024, the executive published on the social network X that the project had been redesigned.
The new sports car is the result of a collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX, a rocket company also led by Musk.
The promise is that the vehicle will accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in less than a second. In the publication, the executive stated that this is the least interesting part of the new feature.
Morningstar projects that Tesla will sell around 2,000 Roadster units per year. The volume represents a fraction of the 1.6 million vehicles sold by the brand last year.
First Tesla
Launched in 2008 and sold until 2012, the first Roadster was the company's pioneering electric vehicle and used the Lotus Elise chassis. The project helped change the world's view of what an electric car could be. One unit was even launched into space.
Since then, the manufacturer has become known for its Model Y and Model X sports utility vehicles and its Model S and Model 3 sedans.
The revelation of the new generation comes at a time of changing focus for Tesla. The company has been shifting priority away from making cars for human drivers toward robotics and artificial intelligence-driven autonomous driving technologies.
This year, the automaker stopped selling the Model S and Model X models to make room for the production of its Optimus humanoid robots.
The company also launched the Cybercab, a two-seater robotaxi designed without manual controls such as steering wheel, pedals and rear view mirrors.
