Elon Musk reveals ‘world’s first flying car’ at Tesla event

Elon Musk has revealed Tesla’s latest model, which he claims will be the world’s first flying car, using technology from his aerospace company SpaceX to “basically fly like a rocket”.

The billionaire, who hosted a demonstration of the Tesla Roadster 2 at the SpaceX rocket development and testing facility in Texas, said the sports car could go from 0 to 60mph in a record time of less than a second and had thrusters.

A video of the event shows the Roadster, which he said was controlled remotely “to make sure we don’t kill anyone”, driving up a curved ramp using suction to grip upside down, before using thrusters to flip, fly and land.

Later in the demonstration the Roadster is seen using the jets to leap over a line of Tesla’s existing models and then accelerate to 60mph in record time.

“Turns out the future does have flying cars,” Musk said in a post on his social media site, X, accompanying a video from the event.

Speaking at the event on Thursday, Musk said: “Flying cars are real. It’s got altitude controls, thrusters and main thrusters in the rear. So it can basically fly like a rocket, it can do rolls, crazy gymnastics.”

“I’m not sure it’s necessarily legal in all jurisdictions,” Musk said, adding that the prototype was “not necessarily a safety optimised car but it takes the fun meter to 11”.

In 2014 Musk expressed his scepticism about a future with flying vehicles.

However, three years later he announced the development of the Roadster 2, which will go into production in 2028 and is priced in excess of $200,000, (£150,000), to create an electric sports car “to give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars”.

After the event, a Tesla reservation website for expressing interest in the two-seater Roadster 2 showed that a “performance” version of the vehicle would require a £50,000 deposit. A “thrust” version would require a $250,000 deposit.

Meanwhile, a one-seater “rocket” variant with “full flight system” was labelled as being available only by invitation. The car company added that flying it was not permitted on public roads.