Tesla Wants Another $50,000 Roadster Deposit — Nine Years After the First One
Tesla wants $5,000 by card and a $45,000 wire within 10 days, all before it shows the production Roadster on October 1. The 2017 depositors are still waiting.
Tesla is asking Roadster buyers for $50,000 again, and this time the money is due before the company has shown the car they would be buying. The reservation page on tesla.com reopened ahead of the Roadster's October 1 reveal near Waco, Texas, Electrek reported, nearly nine years after Tesla collected its first Roadster deposits.
The payment comes in two steps. Buyers put $5,000 on a credit card, which Tesla describes as fully refundable, then wire the remaining $45,000 within 10 days. The reservation isn't final until the wire arrives.
Tesla says the October 1 event at SpaceX's McGregor rocket test site will cover pricing, specs, and production targets. The FAA has restricted airspace over the site from September 18 through October 2, and Elon Musk has spent months teasing a demonstration built around SpaceX-designed cold-gas thrusters.
The first $50,000 is still waiting
The terms match 2017. Tesla rolled out a Roadster prototype in November of that year, asked $50,000 for a standard reservation and $250,000 up front for a Founders Series car, and promised production by 2020. According to Electrek, the program has slipped at least eight times since, and no customer has received a car.
Walking away hasn't always been easy either. Electrek reported last year that YouTuber Marques Brownlee, who had waited eight years, struggled to get his deposit back, with Tesla initially holding on to the $5,000. Sam Altman has said he was ghosted when he tried to cancel his.
The 2017 spec sheet promised a 620-mile range, 0–60 mph in 1.9 seconds, a top speed above 250 mph, and a $200,000 base price. None of those figures has been confirmed for the car Tesla will show next week, and Tesla hasn't published a price for it. At the old base price, $50,000 was a quarter of the car. Against a price nobody has seen, buyers can't know what share of it they are committing.
Bettors are skeptical. On Polymarket, a contract on the Roadster reaching customers by the end of 2026 trades below 5%, Electrek noted, though that market is thinly traded. A 2027 contract sits around 61%.
What October 1 has to answer
For a second round of deposits to make sense, the reveal has to settle what the reservation page leaves open:
- A price. Tesla has promised one. Without it, the deposit has no reference point.
- A production date and a plant, stated as a commitment. The 2017 car had a target, too.
- A clear line between the demo car and the car customers can order. Musk says the thruster-equipped Roadster will "fly," but Electrek expects that stunt car to be remote-operated and not street legal.
- What happens to the 2017 queue. Tesla hasn't said whether original deposit holders keep their place or get better terms.
We set out these open questions in more detail in our reveal preview, and our Roadster price, specs, and release date guide tracks what Tesla has and hasn't confirmed, including the fine print of the reservation agreement.
Musk has framed the event as a spectacle first. "Excitement guaranteed. Success is not guaranteed, but excitement is," he said at the All-In Summit this month. Until Tesla puts a price and a delivery date on stage, the $45,000 wire is a bet on the second half of that sentence. We will update this story after the reveal.
