Better late than never: New Tesla Roadster set for October 1 debut almost nine years after being announced

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Tesla's second-generation Roadster is set to debut imminently. Again.

GE

George East

15 September 2026 · 3 min read

Tesla has announced that it will reveal its new, all-electric Roadster supercar on October 1, 2026, nearly nine years after the prototype was unveiled and six years after it was set to go on sale.

Details surrounding the second-generation Roadster are scant, apart from a few social media posts. The first was on the Elon Musk-owned X social media platform, announcing an event on October 1 with the headline ‘Go for launch’. The second is an image from the Tesla website, with an obscured visual of the new Roadster and a countdown timer outlining its latest arrival date.

Unsurprisingly for Tesla, the second-generation Roadster has been mired in controversy. This follow-up to the groundbreaking Tesla Roadster was initially announced in 2017, with an official launch set for 2020.

The date was then changed to 2021, then 2022, 2023, 2024, and even earlier this year. This has raised questions online about whether the car will even make it to fruition, given the brand’s foray into the Cybertruck, the Optimus robot, and the self-driving Cybercab.

The second image displays four beams of light from the optional SpaceX-developed rocket thrusters Musk hinted at in the past. If, like the car itself, they come to light, they will be able to propel the Roadster from 0-62mph in just 1.1 seconds, half the time of a Formula 1 or a rallycross car. Additional visual clues include a full-length rear lightbar and an enormous rear wing.

In thruster-less guise, the 2+2 convertible Roadster’s 0-60 time is ‘just’ 1.9 seconds. The range promises to exceed 620 miles, and it comes with a claimed top speed of more than 250mph.

The Roadster’s launch event is set to take place in Waco, Texas, where Lake Waco could serve as the venue to display the car’s promised ability to hover or float across water. The floating technology was originally planned for the Cybertruck, but never materialised. Instead, BYD-owned Yangwang picked up the mantle for its U8 SUV, which remains watertight for 30 minutes and moves through the water at around 2mph.

As with the Model S ‘Signature Series’ – the final edition of Tesla’s breakthrough car – the firm has invited Roadster deposit holders to the event on a non-transferable basis. Yet given the number of delays the car has experienced, it is unclear how many orders Tesla has actually taken for the new Roadster. Pricing was set at £150,000 for the standard car, and £185,000 for the range-topping Founders Series model.

If it does make it to market, the new Tesla Roadster will be Tesla’s first all-new publicly available model since 2023’s Cybertruck. Whether it actually does, though, is anyone’s guess.