Elon Musk's Roadster Dream Takes a Surprising New Turn Moz Farooque ACCA Fri, October 16, 2026 at 11:18 AM EDT TSLA -1.15% SPCX -2.42% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares jumped after the company finally unveiled its redesigned Roadster, showing off a new version of the long-delayed sports car equipped with SpaceX-developed thrusters capable of lifting and rotating the vehicle in the air.
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Tesla stock rose about 4.5% in premarket trading Friday following the event.
The demonstration took place at SpaceX's McGregor, Texas, facility and featured a dramatically reworked Roadster using cold-gas thrusters derived from SpaceX technology.
Tesla showcased the vehicle performing aerial maneuvers, including jumps and mid-air rotation. The company said the most extreme version can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 0.6 seconds and reach speeds above 230 mph.
The Performance version is designed for road use, while higher-end Thrust and Rocket variants add increasingly aggressive thruster systems. The Rocket version is invite-only and is not approved for public-road use.
Tesla first unveiled the next-generation Roadster in 2017 and initially targeted production for 2020. After years of delays, CEO Elon Musk now says production is targeted for 2028.
I think the Roadster matters less because Tesla is suddenly going to sell huge numbers of $200,000-plus sports cars.
The car functions as a halo product designed to reinforce Tesla's image as an engineering company pushing the limits of EV performance, while also showcasing deeper cooperation with SpaceX. Reuters noted that analysts see the Roadster primarily in that role rather than as a major earnings driver.
The SpaceX connection is especially notable given growing speculation about closer integration between Musk's companies.
But investors also have to weigh the spectacle against the execution record.
The Roadster is already years behind its original schedule, and production is still roughly two years away.
For Tesla shareholders, the real milestones are now whether the 2028 production target holds, what the final pricing looks like, how many vehicles Tesla can realistically produce, and whether the technologies demonstrated in the Roadster eventually migrate into higher-volume models.
The flying demonstration got attention. Delivering the car at scale is the harder test.
