Remember the Tesla Roadster? Back in 2017, Tesla promised an electric sports car capable of accelerating from 0–100 km/h in less than two seconds. Then came years of delays, missed deadlines, and enough waiting to make us wonder if the Roadster would ever leave the presentation stage. Now, in 2026, Tesla has finally brought it back, and the redesigned car is so outrageous that I had to double check if I was looking at AI generated footage.
During its livestream unveiling, the Roadster drove up a ramp, stuck to its surface while upside down using a suction system, then launched into the air and landed back on its wheels using thrusters. The suction system uses fans to generate grip, while the thrusters expel compressed air to produce thrust. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect from a Hot Wheels set, not a production car. And before you ask, Tesla says the thruster-equipped version isn’t approved for public-road use and is available by invitation only.
The Roadster will come in three configurations: Performance, Thrust, and Rocket. The Performance model is the conventional version, while Thrust adds rear thrusters to improve acceleration and features the suction system in a limited-release configuration. Rocket gets the full thruster treatment, including the ability to perform those spectacular aerial maneuvers. Tesla claims the new Roadster can accelerate from 0–60 mph in less than one second, although that’s approximately 96 km/h, not 100 km/h. The original Roadster was already supposed to be ridiculously quick, so this new claim is bordering on the absurd. Of course, we’ll have to wait for production cars and independent testing to see how much of this performance makes it into customers’ hands.
What’s also surprising is that you can reserve the Tesla Roadster in the Philippines through Tesla’s local website. We didn’t get the Cybertruck but we get this and I’m not gonna complain about it. The initial payment is ₱350,000, followed by another ₱3,150,000 within 10 days. That’s a total of ₱3.5 million just to get your reservation underway, not the final price of the car. Tesla is targeting production for 2028, so prospective owners will need to exercise a little patience. Given the Roadster’s history, perhaps a lot of patience.
After nearly a decade of delays and promises, Tesla has certainly found a way to get the headlines. Whether the Roadster can live up to the hype remains to be seen, but with rocket thrusters and the ability to literally take flight, they’ve certainly mastered the art of shock and awe.
Back in 2017, the Roadster promised to make supercars look slow. In 2026, it’s aiming to make them look very earthbound. Now, the question is whether Tesla can finally turn this ambitious concept into a production car.
Because if they pull this off, the Roadster won’t just be leaving other supercars behind. It’ll be leaving the ground, too.
