Tesla sets Oct. 1 unveil for long-delayed Roadster

Tesla ↗ 4.23% announced Saturday that it will unveil the long-delayed second-generation Roadster on October 1, posting a teaser image to X with the caption "Go for launch" and the date "10.01" displayed across the bottom. A countdown clock now appears on the Roadster page at Tesla.com, the first meaningful update to that page in roughly nine years.techcrunch+2

Nine Years in the Making

The teaser image shows the rear of a low, wide vehicle with four white plumes firing from behind the car and a full-width red light bar, a visual nod to the SpaceX-developed cold gas thrusters that CEO Elon Musk has promised since 2018. Hidden text embedded in the image, visible only when the shadows are brightened, reads "WHERE WE'RE GOING" — a reference to the line from "Back to the Future" that ends "we don't need roads".eletric-vehicles

Tesla first showed the Roadster prototype in November 2017, promising a sub-two-second 0-60 mph time, a top speed above 250 mph, 620 miles of range, and a base price of $200,000. Deliveries were targeted for 2020. They never came. The timeline has slipped at least eight times since, cycling through 2022, 2023, 2024, and various windows in 2025 and 2026. An April 1 demo floated by Musk at last November's shareholder meeting — accompanied by his quip that the date gave him "deniability because I can say I was just kidding" — came and went, as did subsequent targets in late April, June, and August.electrek+1

A Different Car Than 2017

What appears on October 1 is expected to look substantially different from the original concept. Musk has said on multiple occasions that the production Roadster will be "very different from what was shown previously," and the silhouette in the teaser does not match the 2017 prototype's rear profile. The Information reported in August that the 2017 design had been entirely abandoned in favor of a new one.basenor+2

The thruster system, known internally as A71, occupies the rear seating area with roughly ten thrusters and a high-pressure air tank. The demonstration is expected to show the car lifting off the ground remotely with no occupants, with spectators kept hundreds of yards back due to the noise. That version of the car is not expected to be street-legal; a conventional variant without the full thruster package is planned alongside it.eletric-vehicles+1

Production Still Years Away

Even with a confirmed reveal date, buyers remain far from taking delivery. Musk said at last year's shareholder meeting that production would not begin until 2027 or 2028. Reservation holders who paid $50,000 for the base car or $250,000 for the Founders Series in 2017 are still waiting. Some, including tech figures Marques Brownlee and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have canceled.techcrunch+1

Tesla has removed pricing from its website, and whether the original $200,000 base price still holds is among the open questions the October 1 event may answer. Lars Moravy, Tesla's VP of Vehicle Engineering, has confirmed the car will be built at Gigafactory Texas and described the thruster package as "among the hardest parts of the programme".eletric-vehicles