'Flying Cars Are Real': Elon Musk Shows Tesla Roadster's Upside-Down Drive, Mid-Air Flip After Nine Years of Waiting

Elon Musk presented the Tesla Roadster at a SpaceX facility in Texas on Thursday night. The car drove upside down on a ramp before performing a mid-air flip.

The demonstration followed nearly nine years of waiting since Musk unveiled the second-generation concept in November 2017. That month, customers could place a $50,000 deposit or pay $250,000 upfront for a Founders Series model.

Tesla Roadster Flips After an Inverted Climb

The vehicle travelled up a huge curved ramp until it was upside down, then launched into the air, flipped and landed safely. The report described what appeared to be thrusters attached beneath the car.

A separate account of the livestream described the Roadster flipping over Tesla's electric Semi truck.

'Well, it worked,' Musk said after the demonstration. 'Flying cars are real,' added Lars Moravy, Tesla's vice-president of vehicle engineering.

Musk attributed the latest Roadster to collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX engineers. He had previously proposed a SpaceX package featuring cold-gas thrusters, suggesting they might 'allow a Tesla to fly.'

Ahead of the unveiling, he had promoted the livestream on X as 'a candidate for greatest product demo of all time' and predicted that 'the whole world will watch this.'

Other Projects Took Priority Over the Tesla Roadster

The wait had prompted Musk to apologise to 'long-suffering' deposit holders during an earnings call. He explained that Tesla was concentrating heavily on its robotics and autonomy programmes, placing those projects ahead of the sports car.

'Roadster is not just icing on the cake; it's the cherry on the icing on the cake,' he explained at the time. 'We are working on it, but it has to come behind the things that have a more serious impact on the world.'

It was previously reported that Tesla accelerated the Roadster's design work in summer 2025. Thursday's presentation offered waiting customers a fresh look at a vehicle first unveiled alongside the company's Semi truck.

The nameplate dates back to Tesla's first production vehicle, launched in California in 2008. That original Roadster combined a chassis derived from British manufacturer Lotus's Elise with an all-electric powertrain, replacing the petrol engine in the sports car on which it was based. Tesla concluded production of that model in 2012.

Tesla Roadster Specifications Remain Incomplete

When Tesla introduced the second-generation concept in November 2017, it outlined performance targets including acceleration from zero to 60mph (97km/h) in 1.9 seconds and a top speed exceeding 250mph (402km/h).

The company also advertised more than 600 miles (966km) of range and a 200-kilowatt-hour battery pack. Those figures belonged to the original unveiling, rather than a complete specification sheet for the vehicle presented on Thursday.

Separately, footage shown during the presentation indicated that the Roadster accelerated from zero to 60mph (97km/h) in 0.81 seconds.

The latest figure marked an improvement over the 1.9-second acceleration target announced in 2017. However, the newer result was shown in a separate recorded demonstration, rather than independently verified testing of a production vehicle.

'It's going to crush every track record that has ever existed,' Musk predicted when discussing that system. The reports did not identify any track records broken during the demonstration.

Musk also confirmed steer-by-wire steering and described the vehicle as 'the last good driver's car.' Full details of its powertrain have yet to be revealed.