Tesla has put a date on the car it has been promising since 2017. In a post Electrek dates to Friday 11 September, the company published three words — "Go for launch" — over a teaser image of a red Roadster lit like a rocket on a pad, with 10.01 stamped across it. Invitations to reservation holders followed.
What the invitation actually says
The invite reads: "ROADSTER. October 1, 2026. Waco, Texas. Join us. Food and refreshments will be available." RSVPs close at midnight Pacific on Wednesday 16 September. Tickets are non-transferable, identification is checked at the door, nobody under 21 is admitted, and guests have to arrive and check in together. Not a Tesla App puts the start at 5:30 pm Pacific, which is 02:30 on 2 October in central Europe.
Waco is the detail worth noticing. SpaceX's rocket test site at McGregor sits roughly 30 km outside it, and that is where The Information said in August that the thruster demonstration would be flown with nobody in the car. Tesla has not said the two are the same venue.
The teaser hides the interesting part
Inverting the shadowed render on Tesla's Roadster page reveals an angular rear end, a large aerodynamic wing, and four plumes firing from the rear deck — the SpaceX-developed cold gas thrusters. Beyond the date itself, Tesla has confirmed no specification, no price and no availability.
What is confirmed, and what is not
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Reveal on 1 October 2026, Waco, Texas | Confirmed by Tesla |
| Invitations to early reservation holders | Confirmed |
| Cold gas thrusters | Teased in a render, not specified |
| Production start | Musk: 12 to 18 months after the reveal |
| Price, range, acceleration | Nothing confirmed since 2017 |
| European availability | Nothing said |
Nine years on, the numbers are still from 2017
The figures in circulation come from the November 2017 unveiling: 200,000 dollars base, 620 miles of range — close to 1,000 km — 0 to 60 mph in under two seconds, and a top speed above 250 mph. Reservations opened at 50,000 dollars for the standard car and 250,000 dollars for the Founders Series. Nobody has taken delivery, and Sam Altman, who paid the deposit, said publicly last November that "7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait".
Those numbers may not survive the reveal. The Information has reported that the 2017 design was abandoned in favour of a new one, which would make the old specification a historical artefact rather than a preview.
A reveal is also not a production date. Musk has said the car would not enter production until 12 to 18 months after it is shown, and at last November's shareholder meeting he put that in "2027 or 2028".
What a European buyer should take from this
Honestly, very little yet. The event is a United States, invite-only affair for reservation holders, and Tesla has said nothing about Europe. A European Roadster needs EU type approval on its own merits, right-hand-drive markets add a further step, and a thruster package raises questions that no type-approval framework currently answers.
What 1 October ends is the guessing about the car. It does not end the guessing about when one can be bought, or whether the version that lifts off the ground is a product at all rather than a demonstration.