Gasgoo Munich-Tesla's latest showcase just gave the auto industry another dose of Musk-style imagination.
On Oct. 15, Tesla unveiled the second-generation Roadster in Texas. Drawing on SpaceX propulsion technology, the electric sports car pulled off brief airborne leaps and mid-air direction changes.
"Chinese flying cars are still 'car plus aircraft.' Musk's flying car is a car that actually flies," one observer remarked to Gasgoo.
Public awe, however, doesn't equal market endorsement. Wall Street remains fixated on colder realities: whether the car can actually scale, and how much revenue it might bring. Some industry insiders dismiss it as more gimmick than substance. Tesla's stock, for its part, remains in the red.
Even so, Musk's imagination has once again redrawn the boundaries of what a car can be. Online, the question lingered: "How will Chinese automakers — the startups in particular — respond?"
NIO founder and CEO William Li chimed in: "We definitely don't have that." XPENG founder and CEO He Xiaopeng called it "a very cool, entirely different form of flying car."
The "Flying Car" and Space Tech
The Roadster stands apart because it tries to fold automotive and aerospace technology into a single engineering framework.
Back in 2018, Tesla CEO Elon Musk hinted that the second-generation Roadster would offer a SpaceX thruster package. Small, high-pressure gas thrusters could sharpen acceleration, braking, and steering — and potentially lift the car off the ground. The idea sounded audacious, and skepticism has trailed it ever since.
Eight years on, the vision finally got a public, real-world demo. A Roadster prototype drove inverted on a ramp, twisted mid-air, and landed under thruster power — even vaulting over a car ahead. Getting the Roadster airborne relies on two systems "borrowed" from SpaceX working in concert.
Image credit: Tesla
The first is a cold-gas propulsion system. Borrowing from SpaceX, it generates thrust by expelling high-pressure air — the same principle behind spacecraft cold-gas thrusters. No fuel combustion is involved.
Reports indicate the Roadster carries two carbon-overwrap composite pressure vessels (COPVs) with a combined volume of roughly 600 liters, holding about 250 kilograms of compressed air. The system vents this air through 10 nozzles to generate thrust and adjust the car's attitude. Because the compressed-air supply is finite, the setup delivers only brief bursts — no sustained hovering.
The second is an underbody suction system. In Tesla's demo, the car climbed a curved ramp to a near-inverted position, held to the surface by fan-generated suction. A Tesla engineering lead said the system can produce downforce of up to roughly 2g.
Hua Ke, a components engineer, argues that inverted driving hinges on the undercarriage fans lowering local air pressure beneath the car. The resulting low-pressure zone lets ambient atmospheric pressure push the body toward the ramp, giving the tires extra normal load.
Landing attitude poses another technical hurdle. Hua Ke likens the mid-air adjustments to a cat's righting reflex. "It's very similar — however you throw a cat, it lands on four feet."
The analogy points to the core challenge of attitude control. Once the car leaves the surface, thrusters must generate the right forces and torques to arrest unwanted spin and set up a clean landing. The control logic isn't far removed from what SpaceX uses to land its rockets.
Tesla has mapped out three versions of the new Roadster. The Performance variant features two seats, active aero, and the suction system; the Thrust variant adds rear cold-gas thrusters; the Rocket variant, a single-seater, is officially described as flight-capable. Tesla is targeting range of roughly 300 miles (480 km). The Performance version is open for pre-order in China with a 332,000-yuan deposit — though it won't fly.
Image credit: Tesla
The second-generation Roadster first appeared in 2017, and production timelines have slipped repeatedly since. Tesla now says mass production won't arrive until 2028 — more than a decade after the debut. That long wait is exactly why the industry is watching so closely to see how much of this demo translates to reality.
"This tech really isn't practical for daily driving," Hu Ming, an R&D engineer at a major automaker, told Gasgoo. At this stage, he said, it's mostly a stunt — but one that genuinely "blows your mind."
That comment cuts to the Roadster's real-world dilemma. Production cars must clear crash-safety standards, prove long-term reliability, and meet road regulations — all while keeping repair costs in check. Tacking on thrusters and suction gear introduces fresh challenges in packaging, weight, control, and safety. Even if the demo tech matures, a path to everyday consumer use remains long and uncertain.
He Xiaopeng echoed that concern, noting that a real product hinges on specific metrics — flight safety, flight parameters, range — and must clear airworthiness certification. "I genuinely hope progress on these fronts accelerates," he said.
Musk himself has conceded the Roadster will move the financial needle only slightly for Tesla. Morningstar analysts estimate annual sales of roughly 2,000 units.
The Roadster is less a volume play than an engineering halo. For Tesla, short-term sales aren't the only point; the car is a platform to showcase the fruits of its SpaceX partnership and test the limits of what an automobile can be. Its significance, therefore, transcends the car itself.
Can We Believe in Tesla's Master Plan Again?
Whether the Roadster's tech ever becomes practical remains unproven. Yet some of Musk's past visions have survived the journey from punchline to reality. To grasp what this car means, it helps to revisit Tesla's original Master Plan.
Image credit: Tesla
In 2006, three years after Tesla's founding, Musk laid out an unpromising roadmap: build an expensive electric sports car first, use the revenue to fund cheaper models, and eventually bring EVs to the mass market.
The plan eventually mapped to real metal. The Roadster began deliveries in 2008, the Model S in 2012, and the Model X in 2015. The Model 3 followed in 2017, carrying Tesla firmly into the consumer mainstream.
Looking back in 2016, Tesla declared its first Master Plan in its final stages. At least on the product front, Musk's early vision had hardened into a lineup of real cars.
From there, Musk kept stretching the boundaries. Master Plan Part Deux, released in 2016, folded in energy, more models, and autonomy — while pitching a robotaxi network. Master Plan Part 3, in 2023, targeted the electrification of the global energy grid. Master Plan Part 4, set for 2025, leans heavily into AI, automated manufacturing, and humanoid robots, aiming to extend artificial intelligence into the physical world.
Progress across these pillars has been uneven. Tesla has built solid EV and energy-storage businesses; autonomy and humanoid robots remain works in progress. Looking back at the Master Plans, what stands out is Musk's habit of setting distant goals, then grinding through product development, manufacturing, and engineering to nudge at least some of them into reality.
A similar arc played out at SpaceX.
Returning and reusing a rocket's first-stage booster has long been one of aerospace engineering's steepest challenges.
In December 2015, a Falcon 9 brought its first stage back for a vertical land landing after a satellite deployment. Early in 2016, SpaceX stuck the landing on an autonomous drone ship. The following year, it re-flew a recovered Falcon 9 booster for the first time, proving that orbital-class rockets could be reused.
The path was littered with failures and took far longer than initially hoped. Eventually, though, rocket recovery morphed from a high-wire experiment into a routine SpaceX capability — lending hard results to what had seemed like an overly aggressive goal.
The second-generation Roadster has endured its own long wait. Unveiled in 2017 and delayed repeatedly, it has finally appeared as a prototype packing SpaceX propulsion tech, with production now targeted for 2028. The showcase turned what was once just a vision and a promise into something observable. Mass production and delivery, of course, still demand validation.
Image credit: Tesla
The demo also reignited talk of Tesla-SpaceX tech synergies — and the possibility of a deeper integration down the line.
Barclays analysts suggest Tesla and SpaceX could announce a merger within weeks. The logic: Tesla's bets on physical AI — autonomy, robotics — could find synergies with the AI compute infrastructure spending across Musk's empire. A joint Terafab semiconductor project might also benefit from unified decision-making and resource allocation.
Caveat: this is analyst speculation. No merger agreement has been announced, and any deal would hinge on corporate decisions, shareholder votes, and regulatory approval.
Musk's overarching goal is to make humanity a multi-planetary species. SpaceX pushes rocket and Starship development; Tesla builds EVs, energy systems, and robots; Starlink handles satellite communications. As AI emerges as a common thread across these ventures, the potential synergies are drawing increasing scrutiny.
"I have a bit more faith in his Master Plan now," said one AI professional who has long tracked Tesla.
What Should China's Auto Market Take Away?
Viewed through the lens of China's auto market, what's worth discussing about the Roadster?
China's auto industry has built formidable R&D and engineering-execution capabilities. Chinese EV startups typically need about 24 months to bring a new car from concept to market; legacy automakers often take 36 to 50 months, if not longer. Shorter cycles let Chinese companies respond to demand faster and build advantage through rapid iteration.
Over the past few years, domestic automakers have also absorbed advanced tech and turned it into competitive heft. Consider mega-casting: Tesla introduced large press machines for the Model Y body, consolidating more than 70 parts into a single large structural component. Chinese automakers and suppliers soon followed, exploring ways to cut part counts and simplify assembly.
Tesla's pioneering work with full-vehicle OTA updates likewise pushed the industry to take post-delivery software upgrades more seriously.
From manufacturing processes to software, Chinese companies have proven adept at learning, digesting, and scaling. Yet as R&D speed, manufacturing muscle, and cost control become table stakes, companies need new breakthroughs. Mature tech can be copied and refined to close a gap; the chance to truly widen a lead may lie in directions that haven't been validated yet.
The Roadster offers a different lens. Musk is trying to pull aerospace tech into cars, probing possibilities beyond traditional automotive engineering. The setup is far from a mature product and may never suit mass commercialization. Still, it raises a question: What other domains could automotive tech merge with, and just how far can the car of the future stretch?
Image credit: National Bureau of Statistics
China's auto industry isn't short on foundations for further exploration. National Bureau of Statistics data show R&D spending in the auto manufacturing sector reached 237.25 billion yuan in 2025, an intensity of 2.12%. A vast industrial scale, deep engineering benches, and a dense supply chain give companies the means to tackle hard technical problems.
The next challenge is balancing operating efficiency with long-term exploration. Improving mature products means weighing cost, quality, and market reception. Frontier R&D, by contrast, demands repeated trials, and its value can rarely be measured in near-term sales. Companies must keep the business sustainable while carving out room to fund promising, unproven tech.
Innovation doesn't always show results right away. But if companies only fund projects with quick paybacks, more radical ideas will never reach the validation stage.
Which raises another question: Will China ever produce its own Musk?
The Chinese are not short on diligence or resilience. When it comes to innovation and imagination, though, the country still needs time to accumulate. For decades, China was in catch-up mode; industrial and technological progress centered on closing gaps and applying existing knowledge.
"China will have its own Musk — it's inevitable," an executive at a Chinese tech firm told Gasgoo with conviction.
From licensing internal-combustion tech to building leads in batteries, electric drives, and whole-car manufacturing, Chinese companies have parlayed sustained investment into a leap from market participants to global competitors.
Now, shifts are rippling across more tech sectors. DeepSeek is probing new paths in large language models; Unitree is pushing robots toward commercialization; LandSpace and others are trying to crack reusable rockets. These companies are at different stages and face different technical hurdles, but all are venturing into domains where no mature answers exist.
Musk's track record shows that setting a bold goal is only the start. SpaceX suffered multiple landing failures before slowly mastering booster reuse. Tesla's journey from early sports cars to the mass market required years of investment and painful production ramps. What ultimately turns vision into reality is relentless engineering validation, teamwork, and resource commitment.
China's younger generation needs the same opportunities. An innovation ecosystem should back promising ideas while letting explorers fail and learn. Companies must judge which projects deliver near-term returns and which tech warrants patient investment. Young engineers need room to test different technical routes and turn their ideas into engineering outcomes.
Asking new questions, testing new solutions, and making room for rational trial-and-error are all prerequisites for original innovation. Only when these elements are woven into the process can talent and industrial heft translate into genuine creative power.
Whether China will produce such an innovator has no standard answer yet. But one thing is clear: as more young people dare to think and act boldly, as more companies fund basic research, and as society grows more tolerant of experimentation, the odds of a homegrown, original innovator rise.
After all, eight years ago, no one believed a car could actually fly.
