Tesla unveiled a brand new Roadster today at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas, United States. Now this car is something that we have become quite familiar with because back in 2017, Tesla had teased the exact same model as the fastest-ever electric car in the world, with about 1,000kms of range. We’re still waiting for it. We saw teasers, we saw glimpses, we even saw people pre-ordering the car, but we never saw that red coupe-shaped Tesla Roadster on roads. Now we have something that can potentially fly but will it make it to the market? Let’s take a look at the history pattern and figure it out.
Tesla’s unveiling was a spectacular show. It was also the second time in nine years that Tesla has un-wrapped the Roadster in a big event, taken $50,000 deposits and promised a production date that sits at least a couple of years away.
Look past the cold thrusters and the playbook is the same as 2017: big numbers, a stunt, a booking page and a production date far enough away that nobody can hold Tesla to it today. The first time, that playbook ended with a car that never arrived. Nothing shown this week gives us a reason to expect a different ending.
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Similar Optics, Crazy Numbers Both Times
In November 2017, Tesla promised 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, a top speed above 250 mph and a range of 620 miles, or about 1,000 km. This time the headline is 0.81 seconds to 60 mph (about 97 km/h) and a car that can literally fly off the ground.
The fine print is thin. If you look at the showcase closely, the 0.81-second run came with no on-screen timer and has not been independently verified (even Jalopnik reported the same). The flying stunts used demo cars with nobody inside, and Musk himself told the crowd that success was not guaranteed – “I have seen many things in my life, but ‘never’ seen anything like it,” basically certifying that it was an on-stage experiment. Even if scripted, it doesn’t ooze confidence in the potential buyer if the founder himself is not confident of the next-level technology even working. Even looking at the listings, Tesla puts the base Performance model at under 1.6 seconds, and the 0.81-second run appears to have come from the Thrust trim. Musk also said the production car should reach half the speed of sound, about 600 km/h, against Tesla’s own claim of a top speed of around 230 mph (about 370 km/h).
Even the old selling point has gone quiet. It is important to note that during the presentation, Tesla did say anything on the Roadster’s range, battery size, or power output. They even gave no production volume or launch markets. Will we get these closer to 2028? The pattern says otherwise.
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The Same $50,000 Ask After Demo Car Stunt
In 2017, Tesla took a $50,000 deposit on a base Roadster priced at $200,000, and $250,000 paid in full for the Founders Series. In 2026, it is again asking $50,000 to reserve the Performance trim and $250,000 for the Thrust, while the flying Rocket trim is invite-only. Even the steps match: $5,000 by card, then $45,000 by wire within 10 days.
One thing has changed. Tesla has not announced a price for the new car. A website going by the name ‘Not a Tesla App’ reports that the reservation terms say the final figure will be confirmed only when configurators go live. So bascially, buyers are paying before a production car has even been shown, and that too with stunts being done on a un-manned concept car, not a production car.
2028 Production Is A Target, Not a Plan
In 2017, Musk said production would start in 2020. Since then the target has moved to 2022, then 2023, then 2025-2026, and now to 2028 with a car that looks nothing like what people had paid for in 2017. Eight years after the first promise. The reveal kept slipping too. A demo promised for the end of 2025 also never came, we instead got the full schbang of optics all over again, a whole year later. According to a Carscoops report,the Tesla team kept stressing that the 2028 production timeline “was real.” Even Musk said afterwards this would be “an actual car that’s on the roads.” The fact that he felt the need to say so doesn’t help with the confidence of potential buyers. Tesla gave no timeline between now and then. It is a target, not a plan.
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This Is Not The Same Second-Gen Roadster
The car shown in 2017 was a grand tourer. The one flying around our feeds is a two-seater with a completely new design and modernised, square-ish styling elements. It will be sold in three trims depending on how much you want it to fly. The base Performance trim appears to have no thrusters. The Rocket trim, the one that flies, is a single-seat, invite-only car, and according to reports, the thrusters will not even be road-legal to begin with.
So the car in the clips is not the car most buyers would get. Tesla also said nothing about those holding reservations for the 2017 car, some of whom have waited close to nine years. For people waiting on their purchase for nine years, it would have been good reassurance if Tesla said anything about the bookings.
Popular Buyers Are The Warning
Last time, the hype was huge and big names booked. In the first wave, YouTuber Marques Brownlee and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman both reserved a Roadster. Both lost patience.
Brownlee cancelled the reservation he had paid for after nearly eight years, while keeping a free one earned through referrals. He said the app had no cancel button, and Tesla held back $5,000 of his deposit before refunding it later, Electrek reported. Altman, who reserved in 2018, tried to cancel in October 2025 and found Tesla’s reservations email address no longer worked.
This time the flip clips are everywhere, and Tesla is again taking money. As of writing, no notable booking has been publicly reported. If history repeats, today’s excited reservation holders will be tomorrow’s refund-seekers.
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What Tesla’s Defenders Will Say
Supporters will say the thrusters are real engineering, the stunts happened on camera and the Cybertruck did arrive after its own delays. All true. But the Cybertruck took about four years from reveal to delivery. The Roadster is at nine, with a design that has changed completely, and none of the performance claims has been independently tested. Still, we didn’t get anything solid apart from a pre-order page and a “production timeline” of 2028. Nothing on the tentative deliveries, test drives, or anything that makes this look more real than a hype-generating tactic.
My Take On The Tesla Roadster
A car that can literally fly off the ground is actually the coolest thing I may have seen in my whole career as an auto journalist and creator. However, a demo is not a product. Tesla has now taken Roadster deposits twice, and has yet to deliver a single second-generation car. Until it names a price, a range and a production plan, and independent testers drive a customer-spec car, treat this as marketing, not a launch. Last time Tesla failed to deliver. This time looks no different.
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