Event details

Tesla will present its next-generation Roadster at a live event on Thursday, 15 October, in Waco, Texas. The stream starts at 19:55 US Central time, which is 01:55 on Friday, 16 October in mainland Portugal. The company first planned the presentation for 1 October 2026 but postponed it because of weather conditions. Its announcement carried the slogan 'Go for launch', which followers read as a nod to the collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX, the aerospace company led by Elon Musk.

Musk said on the April earnings call that the car could be one of the most striking demonstrations the company has done.

I think it might be one of the most spectacular demos ever.

Promises and production delays

The car was revealed in November 2017 with promises of a $250,000 price, a 0 to 60 mph time of 1.9 seconds and a top speed of 250 mph. Production was originally set for 2020, then moved to 2021, 2022 and 2023. Musk's 2024 target of a demonstration that year, with production in 2025, was also missed. At the end of 2025 Musk said production would begin in 2027, and he pointed to an April 2026 presentation that failed by a wide margin. Electrek's chronology places production in 2027 or 2028, and Tesla is slated to start deliveries in 2027.

Reservations reopened in September 2026 with a $50,000 deposit. Some earlier reservation holders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and YouTuber Marques Brownlee, cancelled their orders because they assumed the car would never launch.

Market backdrop

Wired describes an EV market that has changed considerably since 2017. Cox Automotive says US customers had 15 EVs to choose from in 2017 and now have nearly 90, yet EV sales are shrinking after the Trump administration reversed the US course on the powertrain. Ed Kim, president of AutoPacific, put the shift in plain terms.

EVs exist today in a massively different environment than when the Roadster was introduced.

Musk has described the Roadster as a brand booster rather than a profit driver and has acknowledged that it does not move the revenue needle much. CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson told Axios in an email that the reveal could end a run of weak product announcements.

We think the Roadster reveal could break TSLA's streak of disappointing product announcements and create a level of excitement among consumers that the Robotaxi and Semi reveals failed to generate.

What to watch

Musk wrote on X in 2024 that the new Roadster can fly. In 2018 he described an optional SpaceX package with 10 small rocket thrusters arranged around the car, which Europa Press cited in its coverage. Tesla has said the demonstration must take place outdoors. Electrek reports that the demonstration unit could be operated remotely with no one aboard and would not be legal on public roads. Tesla has billed the evening as its last unveiling event for a human-driven vehicle. Axios reports that it is still unclear when production will start.