With the debut of the Tesla Roadster, Elon Musk shows that “flying cars are real”

Houston — CEO of Tesla Elon Musk unveiled what it described as a “flying” car, equipped with thrusters, on Thursday during a live-streamed event at the facilities of its rocket company SpaceX.

Technical and regulatory challenges have until now prevented the high-profile flying car sector from taking off.

Musk revealed Tesla’s new Roadster sports car during a launch event at a SpaceX test facility in Texas.

During the demonstration, which was livestreamed on Tesla’s

“Flying cars are real,” Musk said at the event, adding that “the success of the vehicle is not guaranteed” but “it will probably work.”

Musk said the car was equipped with “ultra-high pressure air tanks” to propel itself through the air.

The tech billionaire described development as “what happens when you collaborate with the best car maker in the world and the best rocket maker in the world,” referring to Tesla and SpaceX.

The vehicle would enter production in 2028, he said. Prices have not been announced.

“The Roadster won’t move the needle in terms of volume or revenue, with production likely limited, and investors shouldn’t view it as a growth driver,” Yorkville Ives Wall Street analyst Dan Ives said in a research note. “What it does is restore the brand’s halo to the top of the market and shine a spotlight on the engineering stack a week before the FY3Q26 release on October 21.”

On Tesla’s website, potential buyers can make a reservation with a $5,000 deposit for what is billed as a Performance model. A limited edition Thrust model is also promised online but cannot be reserved. Tesla’s website says the Flying Rocket model, with its “complete flight system,” will be offered by invitation only.

The concept of flying cars has been around almost as long as motor vehicles themselves, with American aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss launching the first flying car prototype in 1917. But successful designs were not pursued more seriously until 1917. recent years as electric motors and high-performance batteries have advanced.

Ives said the Roadster shows how Tesla and SpaceX can collaborate. The new vehicle “puts the relationship between Tesla and SpaceX on the table in a tangible way, with the propulsion, pressure vessel and control hardware developed by the rocket company relying on a Tesla product, which we believe strengthens the case for the two companies operating as a single engineering platform over time,” he said.

Musk – one top GOP political donor known for an often close but sometimes tumultuous relationship with President Trump — has propelled his companies to the forefront of several major industries, and he continues to develop new ones.

EspaceX announced a week ago that it had agreed to purchase licenses for the airwaves that will allow its Starlink Mobile satellite business to provide in-building cellular service, a move the company said would allow it to “become a major wireless carrier in the United States.”

“This is the final critical piece of the spectrum puzzle that SpaceX needs to provide comprehensive phone coverage in America,” Musk said in an Oct. 8 social media post.