New Tesla Roadster Review: Rocket Thrusters, 0.59s Claim, 2028 Plans

Tesla's next-generation Roadster finally went public at the SpaceX McGregor test facility in Texas on October 15, 2026, after getting delayed more times than we can count. This two-seat electric supercar rocks Cybertruck-style straight lines, dual rear motors packed with 4680 cells, active aerodynamics, and multi-mode ground-effect fans — comes in Performance, Thrust, and Rocket flavors. Production hits 2028, so fair warning: this is a breakdown of what happened at the launch and what Tesla's claiming, not an actual driving review. Nobody outside the company has gotten behind the wheel of a production car yet.

Three Versions, One Monster Headline

So here's how it breaks down — three different animals. This is what Tesla showed us:

Tesla's official numbers? Top speed around 370 km/h — Musk wants to hit "half the speed of sound," which is roughly 620 km/h — and range sitting at about 483 km. The dual rear motors are what supposedly unlock that sub-0.59-second 0–100 km/h number. But here's the thing: every single one of these figures comes straight from Tesla's mouth. Nobody independent has checked them.

The SpaceX Thrusters Are Basically Insane

Okay, the real star of this whole thing? The cold-gas propulsion system — code-named A71, built with SpaceX. We're talking about ten thrusters fed by 600 liters of compressed air that let the car climb a near-vertical ramp, stick itself to a wall like some kind of sci-fi vehicle, briefly lift off, rotate mid-air, and land without breaking a sweat. Tesla's engineering lead Lars Moravy kept saying the system isn't just for "flying" — it does the downforce thing too, enough to "crush every track record." Sure, Lars.

Two other things caught everyone's attention. First, this car runs full drive-by-wire — steering, braking, throttle, all of it — which is basically unheard of in production vehicles. And second, the body is built from magnesium, titanium, and carbon fiber to cut weight, with butterfly doors and a design that nods to fighter jets and retro supercars while being obviously inspired by the Cybertruck.

The Stuff We Should Actually Worry About

Before we get too hyped, let's pump the brakes a little bit.

1. Everything Tesla said is unverified. That 0.59-second sprint? The 230 mph top speed? The 483 km range? All official claims, none of it independently tested. Whether these party tricks actually make it into a production car, whether they're legal on public roads, or whether they can be repeated reliably — nobody knows yet. Doing something cool once on a closed test track is a whole different animal than shipping millions of cars.

2. The schedule keeps getting pushed. This reveal was supposed to happen April 1, 2026 (yes, April Fools' — we thought so too), then October 1, then finally October 15 because of weather delays. Tesla's most recent filing still has the car in "design development" and lists the production location as "TBD." If we're being realistic, it takes 12–18 months to go from reveal to production, so 2028 is being generous.

3. The market didn't really care. Tesla's stock dropped roughly $88 billion in value within days of the event. Most of Wall Street read this as a cool tech demo, not an actual business that makes money.

4. The range promise tanked hard. Back in 2017, Tesla was talking about 620 miles of range — roughly 1,000 km. Now we're at 483 km. That's a huge hit, and it comes down to how heavy the thruster system is.

5. Price and legality are total mysteries. The old reservation holders are sitting on $50,000 for Performance and $250,000 for the Founders Series. Tesla China opened Performance reservations with a refundable deposit of 332,000 yuan (about $47,000 USD). No final price, and nobody actually knows if the thruster stuff will ever be legal to use on public roads anywhere. Tesla itself hedged with "subject to current laws and regulations."

For reference, the actual competition is the Rimac Nevera, the high-end Porsche Taycan, and the upcoming Polestar 6. The Roadster's thing is clear: those cars are electric supercar performance, but this is supercar performance plus literal rocket technology. On range though? The Nevera does roughly 480 km, so the Roadster basically matches it — and that 1,000 km promise from 2017 just... vanished.

The Bottom Line

The new Roadster is Tesla doing what Tesla does best — maximum showmanship. The Roadster in space, the Cybertruck's unbreakable glass — now it's this. As a tech demo? It's pretty much flawless. As an actual product you can buy and drive? Right now it's just a receipt for a refundable deposit. The only people this genuinely makes sense for are collectors and enthusiasts who are cool treating that 332,000-yuan deposit as a refundable ticket and betting alongside Tesla until 2028. For the rest of us, the smarter play is to sit tight, wait for someone outside Tesla to actually test one, and see if a production car ever actually shows up — the last Roadster took nine years to build, and honestly, who knows how long this one will take.