Tesla's next-generation Roadster is finally getting a date, of sorts. The demonstration attached to it is stranger, and smaller, than the version Elon Musk has been describing for years.
The Information reported on 14 August 2026 that Tesla plans to unveil the car as early as this month at SpaceX's rocket test site in McGregor, Texas. TeslAnt has covered the design chief's "very soon" remarks and the earlier slip of the demo into August. What is new is the shape of the event itself.
Tesla has confirmed none of it.
Nobody will be in the car
The headline stunt is the one Musk has promised since 2018: the Roadster lifting off the ground under SpaceX-developed cold gas thrusters, the package referred to internally as A71.
Two details change how to read it. The car will be operated remotely, with no one inside. And spectators are to be kept several hundred yards back, because the thrusters are loud enough to damage hearing.
That is not a demonstration of a car. It is a demonstration of a thruster package fitted to a car, run at the distance a rocket test requires.
It was more ambitious before Musk saw it
The original routine, according to the report, had the car racing up a magnetised ramp, driving upside down, righting itself and then hovering. That was cut back after Musk reviewed it. What remains is the lift-off.
The vehicle used for the stunt is also not street legal.
What is reported, and what it might cost
| Item | Reported |
|---|---|
| Unveil window | As early as August 2026 |
| Venue | SpaceX McGregor, Texas |
| Thruster package | SpaceX cold gas, internal name A71 |
| Stunt car | Remotely operated, not street legal |
| Price | Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions |
The report also raises the possibility that the thruster version is sold the way Ferrari sells its XX cars: track-only, to a short list of invited buyers, never registered for the road. That would make the flying Roadster a different product from the one people put deposits on.
What this means for reservation holders in Europe
Reservations opened in 2017 at $50,000 for the standard car and $250,000 for the Founders Series. Nearly nine years and at least eight postponements later, nobody has taken delivery. Marques Brownlee and Sam Altman have both publicly cancelled.
Three things keep getting merged, and a European buyer should separate them:
- The demo car. Remotely operated, not street legal, hundreds of thousands to millions. Not a car you can order.
- The production Roadster. No confirmed specification, price or date.
- A European Roadster. Additionally needs EU type approval on its own merits, and right-hand-drive markets add a further step.
A two-seat prototype with butterfly doors was completed in late 2025, with body engineering led by Stefan Nothdurfter, formerly head of body engineering at Lamborghini, alongside design chief Franz von Holzhausen. That is real work on a real car. It is not a production commitment.
The sensible position is unchanged: watch for an actual event with an actual car. A driverless stunt behind a safety cordon would confirm that the thrusters work. It would not tell you when, or whether, you can buy one.