Tesla’s Roadster gets a reveal date, nine years and ten deadlines after its debut

Tesla has put a date on the second-generation Roadster, nearly nine years after it was first shown: a reveal event in Waco, Texas, on 1 October, which lands at 1.30pm on Friday 2 October in New Zealand. A countdown clock now runs on the Roadster page of Tesla’s New Zealand website, alongside the 2017 figures it has carried ever since.

The announcement came in a three-word post on X on Saturday, “Go for launch”, over an image of the car under launch-pad lighting with “10.01” across it. Invitations to early reservation holders and media followed, naming Waco, about 90 minutes north of Tesla’s Austin headquarters and a short drive from SpaceX’s McGregor engine test site, with RSVPs due by 16 September and guests required to be over 21. The event starts at 5.30pm Pacific time.

Turned upside down, the teaser image shows an angular tail, a full-width red light bar, a large rear wing and four white plumes firing from the rear deck, consistent with the cold-gas thrusters Elon Musk has described for an optional SpaceX package for years. The Information has reported the car could come in two versions, one of them a limited model whose thrusters allow it to briefly leave the ground.

The Roadster was unveiled as a prototype in November 2017, driven out of the back of a Semi, with promises of 0-60mph in 1.9 seconds, a top speed above 400km/h, 1,000km of range, a US00,000 base price and a US50,000 Founders Series, and production in 2020. Since then the date has moved to 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and “2025-2026”, and 1 October is the fifth date given this year alone, after an April demo Musk floated while noting he would have “deniability because I can say I was just kidding”. Rimac’s Nevera R beat the 2017 acceleration claim last year.

Musk said last November that production would follow the demonstration by 12 to 18 months, which puts the first customer cars between late 2027 and early 2028, a decade after the first deposits were taken, so whatever appears on 1 October will not be on sale soon. Musk has also said the production car will be “very different” from the 2017 prototype, and the teaser’s rear end does not match it.

The reveal caps a month in which Tesla has re-launched products it first showed years ago, including the Cybercab’s entry into passenger service, and comes as Musk prepares shareholders for a possible merger with SpaceX. Tesla has not said whether the event will be livestreamed; the Cybercab launch was not. In New Zealand, Tesla’s sales run on a quarter-end rhythm that left it with 88 registrations in August ahead of September’s push.