The Tesla Roadster Is Taking $50,000 Deposits Again. Here's What Tesla Has — and Hasn't — Promised

Tesla has finally put a date on the second-generation Roadster: October 1, 2026, in Waco, Texas. It has also started taking $50,000 reservations again. What it still has not done is tell anyone what the car costs, what it will actually do, or when it will be built. This page separates what Tesla has confirmed from what is a nine-year-old promise and what is somebody else's report. It will be updated after the reveal.

Reveal date and event

The date came in a September 12 post on Tesla's X account: three words, "Go for launch," over a red car lit from above and the figures "10.01." A countdown on Tesla's Roadster page runs to the same day.

The rest came from the invitations. According to a digital ticket shared by Tesla watcher Sawyer Merritt and reported by Motor1, Autoblog, and Teslarati, the event starts at 8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 1, in Waco, about 90 minutes north of Tesla's Austin headquarters and a short drive from SpaceX's McGregor rocket test site. Invitations are non-transferable, limited to existing reservation holders, and restricted to guests 21 and older. The RSVP window closed at midnight on September 16.

Tesla has not said whether the event will be livestreamed. Elon Musk's remark at the All-In Summit, that Tesla needs "an audience there to vouch that this is not AI," suggests the physical demonstration is the point. That is not the same as a broadcast.

Reservations: what $50,000 gets you

As of September 18 and 19, the reservation page on tesla.com is accepting deposits, per TeslaNorth and Not a Tesla App. The structure is the one Tesla used in 2017: $5,000 by card up front, then a $45,000 wire transfer within 10 days. The reservation is not effective until the wire arrives.

The reservation agreement is worth reading before you send the wire. It secures "approximate priority" for configuring a car, not a car. Any estimated purchase price, "if provided, is only an estimate," and Tesla says it cannot guarantee delivery timing because the Roadster is still under development. The deposit is fully refundable at any time until you sign a purchase agreement, and Tesla can cancel from its side as well. Tesla does not hold the money in escrow or pay interest on it, the reservation cannot be transferred without Tesla's written consent, and disputes go to arbitration unless you opt out in writing within 30 days.

In Europe the equivalent deposit is €43,000: €4,000 on a card and €39,000 by wire, according to The Next Web, citing Torque News. Tesla has never disclosed how many reservations it holds in any market.

One framing to be careful with: several outlets describe this as a "reopening." Whether Tesla ever stopped taking standard reservations is not clear from the record. Kelley Blue Book reported a reopening in April 2022, and CleanTechnica noted the page was still taking deposits that May. What is documented is that the $250,000 Founders Series was pulled from the site in December 2021 and the pricing disappeared with it.

Price

There is no price. The Roadster page shows a countdown and a Reserve button and nothing else, and the reservation agreement says the price will be confirmed only when you configure the car.

The numbers you will see elsewhere date from November 2017: $200,000 for the base car and $250,000 for a Founders Series capped at 1,000 units and paid in full up front. Electrek documented Tesla removing both figures from its website between November 13 and December 12, 2021, and closing Founders Series reservations at the same time. Those figures are nine years old, predate a redesign Musk has described as radical, and were never attached to a production car. Treat them as history, not guidance.

Whether 2017 depositors will be honored at $200,000, get first configuration slots, or simply get their money back is something Tesla has not addressed. Founders Series buyers who paid $250,000 in full are in the same position.

Specs: what was promised, and what has been reported since

The 2017 prototype came with a spec sheet that has followed the car ever since: 0–60 mph in under two seconds, a top speed above 250 mph, 620 miles of range from a 200-kWh battery, and seating for four. Tesla's Roadster page has continued to carry the 250-mph and 620-mile claims, per TeslaNorth. None of it has been demonstrated on a production-intent car, none of it is tied to an EPA test cycle, and the company has signaled that the production version will differ from the prototype. The specs that count are the ones Tesla shows on October 1.

Then there is the SpaceX package. Musk has talked since 2018 about cold-gas thrusters that would cut the 0–60 time below one second and let the car briefly leave the ground. The Information reported in August, as relayed by Electrek, that the car to be demonstrated is a separate vehicle that is not street legal and will be operated remotely with nobody inside, because the thrusters are loud enough to damage hearing. Electrek has also reported that Tesla has discussed selling that version to a small number of customers through a track-only program. Tesla has confirmed none of this. Whether thrusters will be an option on the road car, and whether any regulator would allow it, is an open question.

Release date and production

Tesla has given no production date. The closest thing to guidance is Musk's own statement at the November 2025 shareholder meeting that production would start in "2027 or 2028," and his repeated line that manufacturing would follow the reveal by 12 to 18 months.

Apply that formula to October 1, 2026, and first production lands somewhere between roughly October 2027 and April 2028. That is our arithmetic, not a Tesla commitment. The Roadster has missed every date attached to it since production was first promised for 2020, and Electrek counts at least eight slips. Tesla executives have pointed to Gigafactory Texas as the production site, but the company has not published a plant, a line, or a quarter.

Design

The "10.01" teaser and the image on the reservation page show a car that is not the 2017 prototype. The rear carries a full-width light bar, an angular spoiler, and four circular openings that read as thruster nozzles, in the same low-polygon language as the Cybercab. Electrek has called it a "Cyber" treatment, and The Information reported that the 2017 design has been abandoned outright. Until October 1, everything beyond that single rear-quarter teaser is speculation, and the renders circulating online are fan work, not Tesla's.

What we don't know yet

• The price, in any market. The 2017 figures are gone from Tesla's site and have not been replaced.
• When and where the car will be built, by quarter. "12 to 18 months after the reveal" is Musk's rule of thumb, not a production plan.
• What happens to 2017 reservation holders and Founders Series buyers, on price, on priority, or both.
• Final specifications, and which test cycle any range figure will be certified on. The 620-mile claim has never been tied to EPA, WLTP, or any other standard.
• Whether the SpaceX thruster package will be a production option, and whether it can be made street legal.
• Whether reservations were ever paused before September 2026 or simply went quiet.
• Whether the October 1 event will be streamed.

What's next

October 1, 8:30 p.m. ET: the reveal in Waco. If Tesla follows the playbook it used with the Cybertruck, expect a price, headline specs, and a delivery window on the night, with the configurator opening later. This page will be updated within hours of the event.

Until then, the practical position is simple: the deposit is refundable, the price is not set, and nothing in the reservation obligates Tesla to a date. For the four questions we think the reveal has to answer, see our preview.