Product2 publishers2 min readPublished
Tesla sets 1 October reveal date for Roadster first shown in 2017, now taking EUR 43,000 European deposits
Elon Musk has said the car does not enter production until 12 or 18 months after the unveiling. Since 2017 the only part of the Roadster a reservation holder has been able to use is the refund process.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- Tesla posted "Go for launch" on X with a 10.01 graphic, its first firm date for the second-generation Roadster since the concept appeared in November 2017 with production promised for 2020.
- A European reservation costs EUR 43,000, taken as EUR 4,000 on a card and EUR 39,000 wired within ten days; the American ladder is $5,000 then $50,000, and the Founders Series took $250,000 up front.
- No customer anywhere has taken delivery of the car, and Tesla has never said how many reservations it holds in Europe or anywhere else.
- Marques Brownlee cancelled after eight years and initially lost $5,000 before Tesla returned it, describing a cancellation route that ended at a phone number and a voicemail box.
- Tesla's European registrations fell 17% in January while the region's battery electric market grew 14%.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- cost The delay is financed by the customer. EUR 43,000 has sat with Tesla earning the holder nothing, and 1 October does not release it.
- decision Holders finally have a date on which to decide: leave the money in place through another development cycle, or start a cancellation Tesla has not made self-serve.
- exposure If one European holder tests whether a reservation is a sales contract, Tesla's EU deposit book becomes a refund liability with case law attached; TNW reports no such case has been brought.
- constraint With the reservation count unpublished, nobody outside Tesla can use the deposit book as evidence that the revealed car has buyers, and Tesla cannot cite it either without opening the number up.
Sam Altman paid a $50,000 reservation fee and said "7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait" [10]. Musk answered that Altman had already been given a refund [11].
Musk's own guidance is that production starts 12 or 18 months after the unveiling [8]. Counting forward from 1 October 2026, the first cars get built somewhere between October 2027 and April 2028 [20]. Tesla promised production for 2020 when it showed the concept [4], which puts delivery seven to eight years past the date on the original promise [21]. Beyond a teaser showing what look like taillamps and four circular shapes on the roof, Tesla has not described the car [19].
A paid reservation is the strongest demand signal a product team can get, and teams treat the deposit list as proof that the market wants the thing. Here that reading has a hole in it. The Information reported that the 2017 car was abandoned entirely for a new, unrevealed design [16], so the money was collected against a car nobody will receive. The American ladder adds up to $55,000 [23].
What the holders have actually done with the product is wait, and then, in at least two documented cases, ask for the money back [9][10]. The Information also reported two versions, a limited flying Roadster and a road-legal car, and Tesla has confirmed neither [15]. The flying one would be demonstrated remotely because of the noise and force of the thrusters [17].
The 31-point gap between Tesla's January registration decline in Europe and the growth in the region's battery electric market [22] is the commercial setting for this reveal. Lars Moravy, Tesla's engineering chief, has called the Roadster the "last, best driver's car" and the company's swan song [18].
If you take money before you can ship, that money stays a float until the customer can reverse the payment in the same place they made it, without reaching a person, and until the date you publish has a build slot behind it and not just an event. Tesla's cancellation route so far ends at a phone number and a voicemail box [9]. Its date is an event [1].
I would publish the exit as plainly as the entry, and I would expect the deposit book to shrink the week you do.
What to watch
- Whether a European holder becomes the first to test if a EUR 43,000 reservation counts as a sales contract under EU consumer law.
- Whether Tesla confirms The Information's two-version report on 1 October or shows a single road-legal car.
- Whether Tesla publishes a reservation count or an order date alongside the reveal.