ⓘ Tesla

One of the sticking points behind the Tesla Roadster 2 supercar's repeated delays seems to have been none other than Elon Musk's other publicly traded company, SpaceX.

According to the ex-Tesla president Jon McNeill, the idea of bolting a SpaceX thruster package onto the car apparently goes back to a brainstorming session in 2016, when Tesla was chasing a 0-60 mph time of around 1.6 to 1.8 seconds to claim the title of world's fastest production car. Elon Musk has since teased that a thruster setup with compressed gas, reportedly running under the internal codename A71, could push that figure down to a rather wild 1.1 seconds.

The system reportedly works by directing the compressed gas thrusters downward, letting the car briefly lift off the ground rather than actually fly without involving combustion. Given how loud that's expected to be, any demo will likely be controlled from afar without a driver, with spectators kept a few hundred yards back.

McNeill wouldn't commit to actual flight happening at the upcoming demo, but he did say hovering is plausible. Tesla has floated August 2026 as the target window, following at least nine prior delays dating back to the second prototype revealed way back in 2027.

Whether Tesla pulls this off or quietly slips the date again remains to be seen, but with Musk recently calling the tech "crazy, crazy," expectations are climbing. If the Roadster genuinely levitates during the demo, even briefly, it'll be one of the stranger automotive reveals in recent memory.

Chinese EV companies, however, are breathing down Tesla's neck, even when it comes to the Roadster 2. BYD already revealed a "flying" car that can briefly jump over potholes or spikes on the road, while vacuum maker Dreame teased a hypercar prototype with the Roadster's thrusters concept that would accelerate even faster at 0.99 seconds and would be a direct competitor when it launches in 2027. 

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Daniel Zlatev - Senior Tech Writer - 2189 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021

Wooed by tech since the industrial espionage of Apple computers and the times of pixelized Nintendos, Daniel went and opened a gaming club when personal computers and consoles were still an expensive rarity. Nowadays, fascination is not with specs and speed but rather the lifestyle that computers in our pocket, house, and car have shoehorned us in, from the infinite scroll and the privacy hazards to authenticating every bit and move of our existence.