A former Tesla president says the endlessly delayed next-generation Roadster is being held up by SpaceX “hovering” technology — and that the project is really about pulling Tesla and SpaceX closer together.

Jon McNeill, Tesla’s president from 2015 to 2018 and now co-founder of VistaShares and CEO of DVx Ventures, made the comments as Tesla preps a long-promised Roadster demo nearly nine years after the car was first unveiled.

Speaking about the upcoming demonstration, McNeill said the event could show off the car’s most extreme party trick.

“I don’t know if we’re going to see flying, but we may see hovering in this demo,” he said via Yahoo.

McNeill framed the Roadster as a morale play for a company under pressure. “Elon recognizes that Tesla needs to inject some energy and excitement back into the car business,” he said.

He was more direct about the strategic motive. McNeill called the Roadster a “probably not-so-hidden attempt to further knit Tesla and SpaceX’s futures together,” and predicted the two companies “are going to come together, probably sooner rather than later.”

The “hovering” comes from a SpaceX-developed cold-gas thruster system, internally code-named A71, that points toward the ground to lift the car. We reported last week that Tesla’s “flying” Roadster demo could happen this month — and that the car would be remotely operated with no one inside, in part because the thrusters are loud enough to damage the hearing of anyone nearby.

Tesla unveiled the new Roadster in November 2017 with production promised for 2020.

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