10 more years? Tesla ‘cannot guarantee’ if new Roadster will ever make it to customers

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The $250,000 deposit is non-transferable, too.

GE

George East

20 October 2026 · 2 min read

Just days after Tesla launched its new Roadster, it appears the Elon Musk-owned manufacturer may not deliver its flying car by its promised 2028 debut date.

InsideEVs noticed that a reservation agreement for the new Roadster on the Tesla website says: “[The] Roadster is still under development and so we cannot guarantee when your vehicle will actually be delivered or if it will be delivered.”

While Tesla asked buyers to put down a $250,000 (around £187,300) deposit for the range-topping ‘Rocket’ edition with its SpaceX-derived rocket thrusters, the new Roadster may not arrive at all.

Section 4 of the reservation agreement states: “You understand that Roadster is still under development at the time you entered into this Agreement and so we cannot guarantee when your vehicle will actually be delivered or if it will be delivered.”

The news will disappoint customers who have waited for almost a decade for the car to arrive. The fact that Tesla is “still working on what options, features, and hardware [it] will have and so cannot confirm the exact price just yet” raises yet more questions about whether the new Roadster will ever see the light of day.

Musk told invite-only audiences at the launch event that it will enter production “for real” in 2028. The fact that the car has been delayed nine times since it was announced in 2017 will not be a source of comfort to buyers. The reservation agreement has already invoked the wrath of online commentators.

TheDrive user, ‘jrhmobile’, said: “This just gets better and better. This is nothing short of demanding an interest-free loan. Or for you to literally sign your money away.” Meanwhile, ‘MH-53 ECHO’ took things a step further, adding: “In layman’s terms, fraud.”

While reservations for the new Tesla Roadster are non-transferable, Tesla isn’t hitting buyers with a no-resale clause as it did with the introductory Cybertruck Foundation Series and the Model S Signature Edition cars.