Can the Tesla Roadster refill itself? A reverse-engineering review of cold-gas thruster recharging on a battery-electric vehicle

Preprint (v4.2, 20 October 2026) and supplementary data package of the review paper Can the Tesla Roadster refill itself? A reverse-engineering review of cold-gas thruster recharging on a battery-electric vehicle. The supplementary package contains the Python analysis scripts, the 108-row scenario matrix, the commercial specification list with manufacturer URLs, the literature value ledger, the English figures and a README with the commands that regenerate every table and figure. Abstract. Public reports of the 15 October 2026 demonstration of the second-generation Tesla Roadster describe a prototype that reached 60 mph in about 1 s and backflipped using cold-gas thrusters fed from composite-overwrapped pressure vessels. Two statements about replenishing the gas store differ: the chief executive said the car "can recharge its air tank", while the vice president of vehicle engineering described an external nitrogen fill at 10,000 psi taking 2–6 h (200 L) and 6–7 h (600 L). This paper compiles the disclosed specifications and first-week analyses, surveys the adjacent literature, and re-derives refill energy, time, thermal load and vehicle-level consequences under both statements from commercial hardware data, every input labelled by provenance. One fill of the 600 L, 690 bar nitrogen store from a gaseous feed requires 107–118 kWh of electricity (central estimates; 87–159 kWh across the assumed ranges). Read as a complete battery-only refill, an on-board system assembled from commercial hardware adds 685–745 kg and 2.3–2.9 m3, consumes 118–148 kWh per fill, runs 11–13 h on an 11 kW compressor and needs 124–156 kWh of nominal pack capacity; under that reading the statement does not fit the assumed hardware and packaging case. The external fill is consistent with a 15–20 kW average compressor input. A 30-minute fill faces a thermal-management requirement: an adiabatic fill reaches 137 °C (ideal gas) to 167 °C (real gas) against an 85 °C reference. Carrying the package costs 7–10 % of range, and the electricity of one fill equals that of 400–500 km of driving. Also submitted to arXiv (physics.app-ph, cross-list eess.SY).