Nine years after it was first shown, is the second-generation Tesla Roadster finally going to be launched? Tesla has posted a teaser on X showing a red Roadster bathed in vertical launch pad-style lighting, captioned “go for launch” and stamped 10.01 – and a countdown clock on its Roadster webpage confirms the date, October 1. That’s 8.30pm Eastern time, or 8.30am on October 2 for us in Malaysia.
In line with invitations sent to reservation holders, the event will likely be held in Waco, Texas, around 90 minutes north of Tesla’s Austin headquarters, with RSVPs required by September 16 and entry limited to guests aged 21 and above.
The “go for launch” phrasing points on the long-teased SpaceX package – cold gas thrusters that Musk has claimed would allow the automobile to hit 96 km/h (60 mph) in under a second, and even lift off the bottom briefly. Reports within the US suggest the October 1 demonstration will indeed involve the automobile leaving the bottom – operated remotely with no person inside, with spectators kept a whole lot of metres away since the thrusters are loud enough to break hearing.
The teaser image gives a couple of things away as well. The 4 plumes venting upwards match the four-fan arrangement in a Tesla patent granted in August 2025 – US 12,377,920, titled Adaptive Vehicle Aerodynamics for Downforce – which describes fans mounted within the vehicle’s airflow pathways working with deployable skirts to seal the underbody, sucking the automobile onto the road for max downforce at low speeds, fan-car style. There’s also faint hidden text above the automobile reading “where we’re going…” – a nod to Back to the Future’s “where we’re going, we don’t need roads” line.
It has been a really long road up to now. The Roadster was unveiled as a prototype in November 2017 with staggering claims – 0-97 km/h in 1.9 seconds, a 402 km/h top speed and 998 km of range from a 200 kWh battery – and production promised for 2020, at US$200,000 for the bottom automobile and US$250,000 for the Founders Series, with deposits of US$50,000 and the total US$250,000 respectively.
Tesla has since moved the goalposts not less than eight times, from 2020 to 2022 to 2023 and beyond. Along the way in which, Musk promised the SpaceX thruster option in 2018 – “10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around [the] automobile” to “improve acceleration, top speed, braking and cornering” – and over 1,000 km of range in 2019.
In February 2024, Musk said the automobile’s design goals had been “radically increased”, alluding to a sub-one-second 0-96 km/h time and calling it “the least interesting part” – the production design was presupposed to be shown by end-2024, with a demo he described as essentially the most epic ever. That reveal slipped too, and as of last November, Musk was guiding for production only in 2027 or 2028.
Don’t hold out for a showroom model, though – US reports indicate the automobile being demonstrated won’t be street-legal, and that Tesla is considering offering it through a Ferrari-style track programme for select customers somewhat than as an everyday production model. Patience amongst early depositors has visibly worn thin – high-profile reservation holders including YouTuber Marques Brownlee and OpenAI chief Sam Altman have cancelled and brought their a reimbursement.
Still, after nearly a decade of vapourware jokes, there may be now a date, a venue and a countdown clock. In under three weeks we’ll know if the Roadster is finally real – or if the goalposts are about to maneuver for a ninth time.
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This Article First Appeared At paultan.org
