Ferrari filed the paperwork for a gas-thruster car system back in December 2018, nearly a decade before Tesla put a thruster-equipped Roadster on stage. That timeline, confirmed directly by Ferrari chief executive Benedetto Vigna in an interview published by the Hindustan Times on October 18, 2026, has turned a quiet corner of the U.S. patent database into the center of an automotive debate: who actually thought of strapping gas jets to a performance car first.
Vigna was asked directly about the resemblance between Ferrari’s older patent filing and the thruster package Tesla showed off on its next-generation Roadster. His answer was blunt. “Yes, there is a patent from Ferrari in 2019 from our colleague. I know it very well,” he said, pointing to a filing credited to the Italian automaker years before Elon Musk’s SpaceX-flavored Roadster reveal grabbed headlines. The admission is now rippling through outlets covering both the supercar world and the electric-vehicle beat, from Italy to the United States.
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What Ferrari’s CEO Actually Confirmed
Vigna’s comments were narrow and specific, which matters given how much speculation has already attached itself to this story. He confirmed that Ferrari holds a patent application tied to a gas-thruster concept for a road car, and that he personally knows the filing. He did not say Ferrari is building a flying car. He did not say Ferrari licensed anything to Tesla, and he did not say the two systems work identically. “It was talking about a car that is using… (technology) like the one you have seen,” Vigna said, drawing a conceptual line between Ferrari’s paperwork and the hardware Tesla has been demonstrating, without claiming the two are the same system.
That distinction is the difference between a fun bit of patent trivia and an intellectual-property dispute. Nothing in the available reporting suggests Ferrari is alleging infringement, pursuing legal action, or even implying Tesla copied anything. What Vigna did was confirm, on the record, that the idea of mounting gas-pushing nozzles on a performance car isn’t new to Maranello. It just sat in a drawer for years while Tesla turned a similar concept into a live demonstration.
Inside the “High-Performance Car with Gas Pushers” Patent
The patent at the center of this story carries the plain, almost comically literal title “High-Performance Car with Gas Pushers.” Ferrari first filed the concept in Italy on December 27, 2018, then followed up with a U.S. application on December 23, 2019. That U.S. filing was published in July 2020 and ultimately granted as U.S. Patent No. 11,072,381.
The gap between the original Italian filing and Tesla’s public thruster demonstration is roughly eight years. For a company built on the mythology of engine notes and tire smoke, Ferrari quietly filing thruster patents in the final days of 2018 is a detail that would have gone unnoticed if Vigna hadn’t been asked about it directly this week.
Compressed Air, Not Rocket Fuel
One detail Vigna was careful to clarify: the system described in Ferrari’s patent relies on compressed-air jets rather than rocket-style propulsion. That is a meaningful technical distinction. The patent describes a car fitted with gas-pusher nozzles designed to help it corner, brake, and accelerate harder by using directed bursts of gas rather than purely relying on tire grip. It’s a chassis-dynamics patent dressed up in dramatic language, not a design for a car that leaves the ground.
That framing puts Ferrari’s filing in a different category than what Tesla has shown with the Roadster. Tesla’s next-generation Roadster has been publicly associated with technology developed alongside SpaceX, and cold-gas thrusters engineered with SpaceX’s involvement have been central to Tesla’s public demonstrations of the car’s thruster package. Ferrari’s patent, by contrast, reads as a grip-and-handling aid rather than a flight system, even though the underlying principle, directed gas pushing against the car’s mass, isn’t far removed.
How Ferrari’s Patent Differs From Tesla’s Roadster Package
It is tempting to read this story as “Ferrari invented Tesla’s flying car,” but that overstates what has actually been confirmed. The two systems share a basic physics idea, pushing gas in one direction to generate force in another, but they appear to differ in purpose, scale, and maturity. Ferrari’s patent is a filed concept with no production vehicle attached to it. Tesla’s Roadster thruster package has already been demonstrated publicly, with Musk saying the next-generation Roadster would enter production in 2028.
Tesla has not announced a price for the Roadster in the reporting tied to this story, and plenty of the car’s final production specifications, including range, seating configuration, and trim structure, remain unconfirmed. That hasn’t stopped the comparison from spreading, especially since Tesla’s own demonstrations leaned heavily on the idea that its thruster system could let the car do things no production car has done before, a claim that invites exactly the kind of “who thought of it first” scrutiny Ferrari’s patent is now getting.
Elon Musk has described the Roadster’s thruster capability in dramatic terms during Tesla’s demonstrations. “So it can basically fly like a rocket. And it could do rolls. It could do, like, crazy gymnastics. Whatever you want, really,” Musk said, according to The Verge. That kind of showmanship is precisely why a comparatively dry Ferrari patent filing is suddenly newsworthy: it offers a counterpoint to the idea that Tesla’s approach is without precedent.
Why This Story Is Breaking Now
Timing explains a lot here. Vigna’s comments landed in an interview tied to Ferrari’s India debut of its first EV, the Luce, not as a planned response to Tesla. But the timing lines up almost perfectly with weeks of heavy coverage of Tesla’s Roadster reveal, including its SpaceX-linked thruster demonstrations and the broader debate over whether the car exists in a regulatory gray zone that neither the FAA nor NHTSA has fully addressed. A journalist asking Ferrari’s CEO about thruster patents in that climate was an obvious question to ask, and Vigna answered it rather than deflecting.
It’s worth noting that patent filings like this one are common in the automotive industry and rarely surface publicly unless a company chooses to talk about them, or a journalist digs one up. Automakers file speculative patents constantly, many of which never make it near a production line. What makes this one notable isn’t the patent itself, it’s that Ferrari’s own CEO confirmed its existence and relevance on the record, in the same week Tesla’s Roadster dominates automotive headlines.
Tesla’s Roadster and the Thruster Package in Context
Tesla’s Roadster demonstrations have leaned on the car’s thrust output explained in prior coverage of the car’s flight tech, with Musk framing the thruster package as something that could let the Roadster briefly leave the ground during a stunt. Musk has acknowledged the risk involved in those demonstrations directly. “Success is not guaranteed. I mean that. It’ll probably work, but if it doesn’t work, we’re at a safe distance,” Musk said, according to a report from KCCI, ahead of one of the car’s public demonstrations.
After one demonstration in which the Roadster used its thrusters to clear a line of vehicles, Musk offered a simpler, more declarative line: “Flying cars are real.” That statement, paired with Ferrari’s confirmed patent, is exactly the kind of juxtaposition driving search interest in this story right now, two very different companies, two very different communication styles, converging on the same basic idea roughly a decade apart.
None of this changes what remains unverified about Tesla’s Roadster. Production specifications, final pricing, and the exact performance envelope of the thruster package have not been confirmed by Tesla beyond the 2028 production target Musk has stated publicly. Readers should treat any more specific spec claims circulating online with caution until Tesla confirms them directly.
Ferrari Isn’t the Only One With a Head Start on This Idea
Ferrari’s patent adds to a growing list of examples showing that gas- and rocket-assisted performance concepts predate Tesla’s Roadster reveal by years. Croatian hypercar maker Rimac reportedly tested rocket-thruster concepts of its own back in 2020, long before Tesla’s thruster-equipped Roadster became a public spectacle. Taken together, the Ferrari patent and Rimac’s earlier testing suggest that the idea of using directed gas thrust to augment a performance car’s handling has been floating around specialist engineering circles well before Musk’s SpaceX-flavored pitch made it mainstream.
That pattern matters for how this story should be read. It isn’t really a case of one company’s idea being lifted by another. It’s closer to multiple engineering teams independently arriving at a similar physics-based solution to the same problem, how to give a car more usable grip and control at the limit, using tools borrowed from aerospace. Ferrari’s patent happens to be the one with the clearest paper trail and the most direct on-record confirmation from a sitting CEO.
Comparing the Thruster Claims Side by Side
The table below lines up what’s actually confirmed about each company’s thruster-related work, separating documented filings and public statements from claims that remain speculative.
| Company | Confirmed filing or event | Stated purpose | Production status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ferrari | Patent “High-Performance Car with Gas Pushers,” filed Italy Dec. 27, 2018; U.S. filing Dec. 23, 2019; granted as US 11,072,381 | Compressed-air jets to aid cornering, braking, and acceleration | No production vehicle confirmed |
| Tesla | Roadster thruster package shown in public demonstrations; SpaceX-associated technology | Performance augmentation; brief airborne stunts shown publicly | Production targeted for 2028, per Musk |
| Rimac | Reported rocket-thruster testing in 2020 | Performance-related testing, per prior reporting | Not confirmed as a production feature |
What stands out in that comparison is the sequencing. Ferrari’s paperwork predates Tesla’s public reveal by roughly eight years, and Rimac’s reported testing predates it by several years as well. Tesla is the company that turned the idea into a headline-grabbing live demonstration, but it is not the company with the earliest documented claim to the concept.
The Patent Timeline, Step by Step
Patent timelines can be confusing to follow, especially when a story jumps between filing dates, publication dates, and grant dates. Here’s the sequence as confirmed through Vigna’s interview and the underlying patent record.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| December 27, 2018 | Ferrari files the original gas-pusher concept in Italy |
| December 23, 2019 | Ferrari files the corresponding U.S. patent application |
| July 2020 | The U.S. application is published |
| Undated (post-2020) | Application granted as U.S. Patent No. 11,072,381 |
| October 18, 2026 | Benedetto Vigna confirms the patent publicly in an interview with the Hindustan Times |
That five-point timeline is the entirety of what’s verifiably known. Anything beyond it, including claims about exact production plans for either company’s gas-thruster technology, should be treated as speculation until an official source confirms it.
Does This Create Any Legal Risk for Tesla?
This is the question most readers will actually want answered, and the honest answer is: nothing in the current reporting suggests it does. Vigna confirmed the patent exists and that he is familiar with it. He did not accuse Tesla of infringement, and no legal filing connecting the two companies has been reported. Patents cover specific technical implementations, not the general concept of “a car that uses gas to move air around it.” Unless Tesla’s actual hardware infringes on the specific claims written into Ferrari’s granted patent, and unless Ferrari chooses to pursue that question, this remains a story about parallel engineering ideas rather than a legal dispute.
It’s also worth remembering that Tesla’s Roadster already sits in something of a gray zone between confirmed facts and unproven claims, with several of the car’s headline capabilities demonstrated publicly but not yet independently verified against a finished production spec. Layering a patent-provenance debate on top of that uncertainty makes for a good news story, but it doesn’t currently change Tesla’s regulatory or legal position.
Market Impact: A Headline Story, Not a Balance-Sheet One
For investors tracking Tesla, this story is unlikely to move much on its own. Ferrari’s patent confirmation is a reputational and narrative event, not a financial or operational one. It doesn’t change Tesla’s 2028 production target for the Roadster, and it doesn’t affect Ferrari’s own EV rollout, which Vigna was discussing in the same interview in connection with the Luce, Ferrari’s first EV making its India debut.
Where it could matter is in how both companies market their performance halo cars going forward. Tesla has built significant hype around the idea that the Roadster’s thruster package is a category-defining innovation tied to SpaceX. A patent filing that predates Tesla’s reveal by years, confirmed by a rival automaker’s own CEO, complicates that pure-innovation narrative, even if it changes nothing about the car’s actual engineering or Tesla’s broader halo-car playbook against rivals like Rimac.
What Ferrari Gains From Speaking Up
There’s a reputational upside for Ferrari in this exchange, too. At a moment when the company is pushing its first EV into new markets like India, having its CEO casually confirm that Ferrari engineers were sketching out gas-thruster concepts back in 2018 reinforces a message Ferrari has leaned on for decades: that its engineering culture produces ideas well ahead of when the market catches up to them. Whether or not that framing holds up to scrutiny, it costs Ferrari nothing to let the comparison stand.
Historical Context: Aerospace Ideas Keep Finding Their Way Into Cars
This isn’t the first time aerospace-adjacent thinking has shown up in a performance car’s patent filings, and it won’t be the last. Automakers have borrowed from aviation and motorsport engineering for decades, whether that’s active aerodynamics, ground-effect concepts first explored in Formula 1, or, now, directed-gas handling aids. What’s different this time is the public attention. A decade ago, a patent like Ferrari’s “High-Performance Car with Gas Pushers” would likely have sat in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database indefinitely, cited occasionally by patent attorneys and ignored by everyone else.
Tesla’s decision to publicly demonstrate a thruster-equipped Roadster, and to frame it as a SpaceX-powered first, changed that calculus. It turned an obscure engineering patent into a talking point, and it gave journalists an obvious reason to ask Ferrari’s CEO a pointed question he could have dodged but didn’t.
What Industry Watchers Are Likely Asking Next
Expect scrutiny to shift toward three things in the coming weeks: whether Ferrari says anything further about its own plans for gas-assisted performance technology, whether Tesla’s communications team responds directly to the patent comparison, and whether other automakers with similar dormant patents decide to surface them now that the topic has media attention. None of that has happened yet as of this writing, and any claims along those lines should be treated as speculative until a named source confirms them.
It’s also reasonable to expect renewed interest in Rimac’s earlier rocket-thruster testing, since that example now sits alongside Ferrari’s patent as evidence that Tesla’s thruster concept has more precedent than its marketing suggested.
Five Predictions for How This Story Develops
- Ferrari is unlikely to pursue any legal action; the company’s public comments so far read as acknowledgment, not accusation.
- Tesla’s communications team will likely either stay silent on the comparison or reframe its Roadster thruster package as a production-ready execution of an idea others only patented.
- More dormant automotive patents involving gas- or jet-assisted performance concepts will likely surface in coverage over the next few months as outlets dig through patent databases for similar stories.
- Scrutiny of Tesla’s 2028 Roadster production target will intensify, since any delay would widen the gap between Tesla’s demonstrated thruster showmanship and an actual deliverable car.
- Ferrari’s EV push, including the Luce’s India debut referenced in Vigna’s interview, will likely get a secondary publicity boost from this story’s spread across EV and automotive media.
The Bigger Picture for Tesla’s Roadster Ambitions
Strip away the patent-trivia angle and what’s left is a reminder of how much of the Tesla Roadster story still rests on demonstrations rather than deliverables. The car has drawn enormous attention for its thruster-assisted stunts and its SpaceX branding, but production is still targeted for 2028, pricing has not been officially confirmed in connection with this reporting, and now a rival automaker’s CEO has publicly noted that the underlying concept isn’t as singular as Tesla’s marketing has implied.
That doesn’t make Tesla’s engineering less real or less ambitious. Demonstrating a working thruster system in public, even an early one, is a different achievement than filing a patent application and letting it sit unused for eight years. But it does mean the “world’s first” framing that tends to attach itself to Tesla announcements deserves a second look whenever a patent record this specific surfaces.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Ferrari patent flying car technology before Tesla?
Ferrari filed a patent for a gas-thruster car concept, titled “High-Performance Car with Gas Pushers,” in Italy on December 27, 2018, and in the U.S. on December 23, 2019. Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna confirmed the patent’s existence on October 18, 2026, but described it as using compressed-air jets to aid cornering, braking, and acceleration, not as a flying-car design.
What is Ferrari’s “High-Performance Car with Gas Pushers” patent?
It’s a U.S. patent, granted as US 11,072,381, describing a performance car fitted with gas-pusher nozzles intended to improve handling, braking, and acceleration using directed bursts of compressed air.
Did Benedetto Vigna confirm a direct link between Ferrari’s patent and Tesla’s Roadster?
Vigna confirmed Ferrari’s patent exists and said it described technology conceptually similar to what Tesla has shown. He did not say the two systems are identical, and he did not allege that Tesla copied Ferrari’s design.
Is Ferrari building a flying car?
No. Available reporting does not show Ferrari has any production flying-car program. The patent describes a ground-based performance aid using compressed-air jets, not a vehicle designed to leave the ground.
What is U.S. Patent No. 11,072,381?
It is the granted U.S. patent covering Ferrari’s “High-Performance Car with Gas Pushers” concept, originally filed in the U.S. on December 23, 2019, and published in July 2020.
How is Ferrari’s gas-pusher patent different from Tesla’s SpaceX-associated thrusters?
Ferrari’s patent describes compressed-air jets aimed at improving handling and braking on the ground. Tesla’s Roadster thruster package has been publicly associated with SpaceX and demonstrated performing brief airborne maneuvers, a more dramatic and more mature public application of a conceptually related idea.
When will the Tesla Roadster go into production?
Elon Musk has said the next-generation Tesla Roadster is targeted to enter production in 2028. A final price has not been announced in connection with this reporting.
Could Ferrari’s patent affect Tesla’s Roadster launch?
Nothing in current reporting suggests Ferrari is pursuing any legal claim against Tesla. Vigna’s comments read as acknowledgment of a parallel idea rather than an accusation, so there is no indication this patent will delay or otherwise affect Tesla’s Roadster production plans.
