Inc. is hoping a flight demonstration will give its ground-bound auto business a lift. The electric vehicle maker is planning to unveil its long-promised new Roadster sports car Thursday in Texas, reviving and refreshing a model that Tesla stopped producing more than a decade ago. The high-end vehicle will give the company another offering in a slimmed-down lineup revolving primarily around a pair of mid-priced consumer models.

The showcase won’t be your typical pull-the-sheet-off-the-car reveal, though. Tesla is expected to show off a Roadster that can fly.

The automaker has been working for years on a prototype that Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has hinted would be capable of flight, using rocket-like technology. Thursday’s late-day event will be held in a tightly controlled environment at a SpaceX rocket testing facility near Waco.

Musk, who also runs SpaceX, said earlier this year that the Roadster debut “might be one of the most spectacular demos ever.”Tesla’s recent promotions have included references to the film series, which featured a flying car.

Tesla’s auto business could use a boost, after consecutive annual sales declines and criticism over a stagnant product lineup. While Musk is working to reorient the company around futuristic business lines such as artificial intelligence and robots, EV sales still account for the majority of the company’s revenue and profit.

Andrew Rocco, a stock strategist at Zacks Investment Research, said the demonstration could generate enthusiasm for Tesla, but ultimately a high price tag and small total addressable market mean the Roadster will likely do little to change Tesla’s sales or earnings prospects.

“It’s going to be an exciting product. Likely, it’s going to build a lot of hype, but I don’t think that it’s going to be a needle mover,” Rocco said. “Musk loves to build hype around the brand.”Tesla isn’t likely to sell a flying version of Roadster to the public, because of the many challenges ranging from cost and safety to regulatory and practicality. But the flashy stunt is likely to draw attention and underscore Tesla’s efforts to be seen as a boundary-pushing, tech-forward company. Executives have also emphasized the Roadster will be an ode to manual driving, even as the company increasingly focuses on autonomy.

The vehicle has been subject to numerous delays since it was first announced in 2017. The original Roadster, Tesla’s first product, was launched in 2008 and discontinued in 2012.

Garrett Nelson, a senior equity research analyst at CFRA, said the revived Roadster is “long overdue” and the Tesla brand could use a buzzy new model. “They’ve had this lull in their product pipeline for years now,” Nelson said.

The new version adds to Tesla’s limited consumer vehicle lineup, which currently consists of the Model 3 and Model Y, as well as the slow-selling Cybertruck. Tesla, which discontinued two consumer models earlier this year, also makes the commercial Semi truck and is producing a two-person robotaxi known as the Cybercab, which isn’t yet for sale to outside customers.

Tesla has suggested for years that the next Roadster could include a SpaceX option package, and the unveiling will offer another instance of overlap between the companies, which some investors and analysts see as justification for a merger.

Musk has talked recently about the ways that his two largest companies interact, including on a recent earnings call when he said Tesla overlaps “on so many fronts with SpaceX.”He pointed in particular to Terafab, a joint effort by the companies to build a semiconductor plant.

“We’ve seen the companies grow closer and closer,” Nelson said. “It’s approaching the point where Musk can make the argument that the companies collaborate so closely that it just makes sense to merge.”

He added: “If the Roadster design does include features developed and designed by SpaceX, that would be another step in that direction.”