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Boeing made the most expensive car of all time which cost $281,000,000 but it only had a top speed of 8mph

Published on Mar 05, 2026 at 3:37 AM (UTC+4)
by Molly Davidson

Last updated on Mar 05, 2026 at 3:37 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by Molly Davidson

Boeing once built a vehicle that technically qualifies as the most expensive car ever made.

In today’s money, it cost around $281 million to develop – a price tag that makes even the rarest hypercars look cheap.

But despite the staggering budget, this vehicle wasn’t built for speed or luxury.

Instead, it was designed to crawl across the surface of the Moon.

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The $281 million vehicle Boeing built to drive on the Moon

Back in the early 1970s, NASA hired Boeing and Delco to create a small electric vehicle astronauts could drive across the Moon.

At first, the contract was worth $19 million. 

However, designing something that could survive space turned out to be far more complicated than expected, and the final cost climbed to $38 million in 1971 (about $281 million today).

To make it work, engineers had to build a vehicle that was incredibly light while still strong enough to carry astronauts and their equipment across rough lunar terrain.

Boeing helped build the $281 million NASA lunar rover with a top speed of just 8mph and three of them are still parked on the Moon today
Boeing

As a result, the finished Lunar Roving Vehicle weighed just 463 pounds, which is lighter than many small cars on Earth.

Even so, it could still carry up to 1,080 pounds of astronauts, tools, and scientific gear.

Meanwhile, power came from four small electric motors. 

Together they produced about one horsepower – roughly the same as a lawn mower.

Because of that limited power, the rover’s normal top speed was only around 8mph.

Even so, during the Apollo 17 mission, astronaut Eugene Cernan managed to push one to 11.2mph, which still stands as the fastest anyone has ever driven on the Moon.

Boeing helped build the $281 million NASA lunar rover with a top speed of just 8mph and three of them are still parked on the Moon today
NASA

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Supercars parked permanently in space

NASA only built a handful of these lunar vehicles, and three were eventually used during the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions.

Thanks to the rover, astronauts were able to travel much farther away from their landing sites and explore more of the Moon’s surface.

However, once the missions were finished, bringing the vehicle home simply wasn’t possible.

After all, there wasn’t enough space on the spacecraft to carry it back to Earth.

Boeing helped build the $281 million NASA lunar rover with a top speed of just 8mph and three of them are still parked on the Moon today
NASA

So instead, astronauts parked the vehicles on the lunar surface before leaving.

Today, those three NASA Lunar Roving Vehicles are still sitting exactly where they were last driven, roughly 238,900 miles away from Earth.

Which means the most expensive car ever built isn’t sitting in a museum or a billionaire’s garage.

It’s parked on the Moon.

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With roles at TEXT Journal, Bowen Street Press, Onya Magazine, and Swine Magazine on her CV, Molly joined Supercar Blondie in June 2025 as a Junior Content Writer. Having experience across copyediting, proofreading, reference checking, and production, she brings accuracy, clarity, and audience focus to her stories spanning automotive, tech, and lifestyle news.