Tesla says its revived Roadster can reach 60 mph in 0.81 seconds, a figure the company showed at a livestreamed reveal on Oct. 15 in which the car drove off a ramp, used thrusters to flip over and landed under control. Tesla has not announced a price for any version of the car, and the only production timing on offer is Elon Musk’s “2028, actually.”
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The claim arrives nine years after the first Roadster prototype and after a string of postponed unveilings. It also comes with a list of specifications that are noticeably less ambitious than the ones Tesla promised in 2017.
The 0.81-second claim and the trims behind it
Carscoops, in its report on the reveal, says Tesla reached 0 to 60 mph in 0.81 seconds and treats the number as a demonstration claim rather than a figure from a production car. It adds that Tesla did not disclose top speed, range, horsepower, motor layout or battery capacity during the livestream itself, although Tesla later posted trim figures on X, and it calls the car a concept for now, noting that production is pegged to 2028.
Electrek’s account of the unveil fills in the lineup using Tesla’s posts on X. The Performance trim is a two-seat, road-ready car with a claimed 0 to 60 time of under 1.6 seconds. The Thrust trim adds rear cold-gas thrusters and is quoted at under 0.9 seconds, which is the class that covers the 0.81-second run. The single-seat Rocket trim, with perimeter thrusters and a top speed above 230 mph, is quoted at under 0.59 seconds.
The hardware behind the stunts is described in the same reports. Carscoops says the car carries 10 cold-gas thrusters fed by two 600-liter tanks of ultra-high-pressure air, and that fans underneath provide up to 2 g of downforce even when the car is stationary. Electrek adds that Tesla claims the thrusters produce four to five times the force the tires can handle, and that the car lowers itself and deploys active wings in a track mode.
The fastest versions are the least attainable. Tesla lists the Thrust trim as a limited release and the Rocket as invite only, and Tesla’s Roadster page says the Rocket is not approved for public road use. Electrek suggests the flashiest stunts are tied to trims that are neither road legal nor likely to be sold in volume, and its author doubts Tesla will sell more than a handful of the stunt-capable versions. The same report argues that the engineering is real, since cold-gas thrusters that work in the atmosphere, a fan system that can hold a car to a ceiling and wings driven by Optimus actuators are each plausible alone, even if combining them in one road car is untested.
No price, a $50,000 reservation and a 2028 target
Tesla has put no price on the Roadster. Electrek states plainly that no price was announced for any trim and that no official production date exists. Carscoops adds that how reservation holders will configure their cars, when configuration opens, and how order positions will be handled all remain open questions, along with what happens to people who held reservations on the earlier Roadster.
What Tesla does charge is a deposit. According to a Carscoops report on the reservations, customers pay $5,000 by credit card and must wire the remaining $45,000 within 10 days, for a $50,000 total. Electrek says the $5,000 is described as fully refundable and notes that the $50,000 matches the standard reservation Tesla asked for in 2017.
The 2028 date comes from Musk himself. Electrek quotes him as saying “2028, actually,” and reports that no more specific schedule accompanied the reveal, so buyers who wire the full $50,000 are committing to a car whose price, final specifications and delivery order have not been published.
What changed since 2017
Electrek’s timeline of the delays shows the original promise: a four-seat roadster shown in November 2017 with a 620-mile range, a 1.9-second 0 to 60 time and a $200,000 price, with production due in 2020. Buyers could put down $50,000 for a standard reservation or $250,000 for a Founders Series spot, and Electrek counts at least six production slips and seven unveil dates since.
The new car trades some of those headline numbers for others. Electrek’s comparison says Tesla now claims a range of more than 300 miles instead of 620, a Rocket top speed above 230 mph instead of more than 250, and two seats at most instead of four, while the Performance trim beats the 1.9-second promise.
The thrusters trace to a collaboration with SpaceX. In an earlier report, Electrek described a cold-gas system developed with SpaceX that Musk has said could lift the car briefly off the ground and deliver a 0 to 60 time of 1.1 seconds, claims that were unverified at the time. The 0.81-second figure shown on Oct. 15 is quicker than that earlier boast, but it remains a claim from Tesla about a car that cannot yet be bought, priced or built.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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