Tesla is preparing to unveil the second-generation Roadster in August 2026, according to a report from The Information, which cited four people with knowledge of the program. The report has not been confirmed or denied by Tesla. The disclosure brings renewed attention to a development saga stretching back to 2017.
Elon Musk has once again pushed back the Tesla Roadster unveiling. During the Q1 2026 earnings call, the CEO said the car might debut “in a month or so”, blowing past the late April timeline he had set just weeks earlier. According to the subsequent report from The Information, Tesla has pushed the planned public demo of the next-generation Roadster to August or later.
A supercar years in the making
More than six years behind its original on-sale schedule, the second-generation Tesla Roadster is approaching its first public demonstration since the 2017 prototype reveal.
The second-generation Tesla Roadster was first unveiled as a surprise at Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, California, during the Tesla Semi launch event in November 2017. Musk has said the production car will have a design that is “very different” from what was shown in 2017, and has described the planned demonstration as potentially “the most mind-blowing product demo of all time.”
The second-generation Roadster is touted as one of the most extreme electric sports cars yet announced, with an optional SpaceX-developed cold gas thruster system among the highlights. Musk has claimed a 0, 60 mph time of 1.1 seconds for the SpaceX-package version and has said the car will be able to hover off the ground.
Tesla plans to produce a limited-edition SpaceX version of the Roadster featuring the thruster system. Musk has talked about the SpaceX package since 2018, describing it as roughly ten cold-gas rocket thrusters that would replace the rear seats and enhance cornering, braking, and acceleration. No confirmed engineering specification has been released by Tesla.
Official specs listed on Tesla’s website include 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, 0 to 100 mph in 4.2 seconds, a quarter-mile in 8.8 seconds, wheel torque of 10,000 Nm, and a 620-mile range from a 200 kWh battery pack. Whether those figures carry over to the production car, or are superseded by updated numbers at the August reveal, remains to be seen.
Price, reservations and who gets in first
The base price announced at the 2017 reveal was $200,000. Tesla immediately began collecting deposits. The Founders Series required a $250,000 commitment, while standard reservations required $50,000. Those reservation holders have been waiting nearly a decade for a production vehicle.
At Tesla’s November 2025 shareholder meeting, Musk set a demo date of April 1, 2026, with production 12 to 18 months after that, meaning 2027 or 2028 at the earliest. At that same meeting, Musk suggested that the production launch of the Roadster is set for sometime in the second half of 2027. Production will take place at Gigafactory Texas, according to Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy, who confirmed the location on the Ride The Lightning Podcast on May 24, 2026.
That timeline puts customer deliveries well into 2027 at the earliest, and potentially 2028 for the broader order queue. The extended wait sits in stark contrast to Tesla’s expanding mainstream lineup, where the three-row Model Y L reached U.S. buyers this summer starting at $61,990.
Repeated delays and what is different now
Each year brought fresh delays as Tesla prioritized the Model 3, Cybertruck, Semi, and more recently the Cybercab and Optimus robot. Musk set an April 1, 2026 demo date at the November 2025 shareholder meeting, openly saying the date gave him “deniability.” That date passed without an event. He then said on X that the event had been pushed to late May or early June. Now, according to The Information’s sources, it is August or later.
Tesla recently filed new trademarks for the refreshed Roadster. Filings show a sleeker design with a squarer roofline compared to the 2017 prototype, hinting that the final design has evolved significantly.
Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy confirmed in a recent interview that the Roadster is currently in testing and will be built at Gigafactory Texas. Recent job listings for Roadster manufacturing engineers suggest the project is no longer theoretical.
The Roadster’s price point places it in rare company. The U.S. electric car market is facing a turbulent phase, with slower consumer adoption, reduced government incentives, and ongoing trade tensions. At $200,000 or more, the Roadster targets a segment largely insulated from those headwinds, though the broader pressure on new-car sticker prices underscores how sensitive the U.S. market has become to vehicle costs at every level.
What the reveal will show
Sources indicate the public demonstration is shifting to a late-summer event scheduled to take place in Texas, where the electric vehicle is expected to show off its rocket propulsion technology. Tesla has not confirmed the exact date within August. Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen suggested the company may reveal something much sooner, telling attendees of the Tesla Takeover Europe event in Austria that the Roadster unveiling was coming “in a few weeks”, comments that stand in contrast to The Information report placing the debut in August.
The Roadster will mark Tesla’s first vehicle event since the Cybercab unveiling and the company’s first purpose-built performance halo car to reach production specification. Full pricing, final range figures, and production scheduling details are expected to be disclosed at the unveiling.
