Last week, Tesla showed off a prototype of its second-gen Roadster, which looks more like a car straight out of Back to the Future. It can’t travel through time, but it can drive vertically, flip upside down, and jump over cars, all thanks to compressed-air tanks holding up to 600 liters.
High-pressure air blasts through 10 rocket-like nozzles around the car, generating enough thrust to lift it, jump, move forward, adjust midair, spin, and flip.
To stick to the ramp, fans underneath suck air from between the car and the surface, creating a pressure difference that holds it in place. Basically, a giant vacuum cleaner on wheels.
Sleight of engineering and no cheating. Still, investors weren’t impressed, with Tesla shares falling after the presentation. Why?
First, the “flying” Roadster isn’t approved for public road use, as Musk briefly mentioned during the presentation and Tesla states on its website. And there may not be many willing to pay over $200,000 for a toy they can only use on closed tracks and private property.
Second, nobody knows when it will actually arrive. Tesla is tentatively targeting 2028, but that’s no guarantee customers will get the car that year. Tesla itself warns that it can’t guarantee delivery dates or even that the Roadster will be delivered at all, since it’s still in development. On top of that, its final price remains unknown.
What can boost Tesla shares?
Its quarterly earnings report, in particular, better-than-expected results.
Еhe thing is, even though Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in Q3 2026, beating analysts’ forecast of 461,974, it’s unclear how profitable those deliveries were, as gross profit per vehicle fell to $7,213 in Q2 amid lower prices and rising production costs.
The consensus, for instance, suggests adjusted earnings of 0.43–0.45 per share on about $27.9 billion in revenue, compared with $0.50 per share and $28.1 billion in revenue in the same quarter last year.
It’ll also be interesting to hear updates on the $1.1 billion in negative free cash flow reported last quarter and plans to spend over $25 billion on capital investments in 2026, including AI development, updates on robotaxis, Optimus humanoid robots, and a possible Tesla–SpaceX combination.