Tesla sets 1 October for the next-generation Roadster reveal

Tesla says it will reveal the next-generation Roadster on 1 October, the first firm date since it showed the car as a concept in 2017 and promised production for 2020. European reservations cost EUR 43,000 paid within ten days, no customer anywhere has taken delivery, and the reveal lands while Tesla’s European registrations are falling against a growing market.

Tesla will reveal the next-generation Roadster on 1 October, InsideEVs reported. It is the first firm date the company has given for a car it first showed nine years ago.

The teaser shows what look like taillamps and four circular shapes on the roof. Those may be the SpaceX cold gas thrusters Tesla has talked about for years. Tesla has said nothing else about the car.

The car appeared as a concept in 2017 and was promised for 2020. TNW was already writing up the delays in 2021, by which point the target had moved to 2022.

The Information reported last month that there will be two versions, a limited flying Roadster and a road-legal car. Tesla has confirmed neither.

The flying one would be demonstrated remotely, because of the noise and force of the thrusters. That is a description of a stunt rather than a product.

What is documented is the money.

A European reservation costs EUR 43,000. Four thousand goes on a card and thirty-nine thousand by wire within ten days of that.

The American version is $5,000 followed by $50,000, and the Founders Series took $250,000 up front. The second payment is due within ten days there too.

Nobody anywhere has taken delivery of one.

Getting the money back has not always been simple. Marques Brownlee cancelled after eight years and initially lost $5,000 before Tesla returned it, and Sam Altman has asked for his deposit back too. Brownlee described a cancellation process that routed him to a phone number and a voicemail box.

The timing is awkward for a second reason. Tesla’s European registrations fell 17% in January while the region’s battery electric market grew 14%. Tesla has never said how many reservations it holds, in Europe or anywhere else.

European holders may be better placed than American ones. EU consumer law gives a buyer a route to terminate and reclaim payments when a trader fails to deliver, though whether a reservation counts as a sales contract has not been tested. No such case has been reported.

Lars Moravy, Tesla’s engineering chief, has called the Roadster the “last, best driver’s car” and the company’s swan song. It arrives as a halo car for a brand that has handed European rivals a rare window.