Tesla Finally Set a Date for the Roadster. October 1st, Waco, Texas.
Nine years. That's how long reservation holders have been sitting on deposits while Tesla kept the Roadster perpetually "coming soon." On October 1, 2026, that waiting finally ends, or at least the waiting-without-even-a-date part. Tesla has sent formal invitations to reservation holders for an event in Waco, Texas at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. RSVPs were required by midnight September 16th, so if you haven't done that yet, you're already cutting it close.
Why Waco
Waco sits about 90 minutes north of Tesla's Austin headquarters and right next to SpaceX's rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas. That proximity isn't coincidental. The McGregor site has been reported for years as the planned location for a live Roadster thruster demonstration. So this isn't just an unveiling event. If everything goes as staged, Tesla is planning to actually fire the rockets.
The caption Tesla used for the announcement: "Go for launch." They're leaning into it.
The SpaceX Package Is the Whole Point
The standard Roadster specs from 2017 were already absurd: 0-60 under 2 seconds (1.9 seconds quoted), top speed above 250 mph, 620 miles of range on a 200 kWh battery. Serious numbers. But the SpaceX thruster package is what makes this genuinely weird in the best possible way.
Internally code-named A71, a reference to the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the package uses cold gas thrusters fed by a composite overwrapped pressure vessel. That's the same tank design used on Falcon 9. Add that hardware to the car and the 0-60 time drops from 1.9 seconds to approximately 1.1 seconds under roughly 2.75 g of launch force.
To put that in context: most people haven't experienced anything above 1 g in a vehicle. Fighter pilot training runs at about 9 g. 2.75 g in a car, on a road surface, means the seat is pushing into your back hard enough that most passengers would struggle to lift their arms. And it's over in just over a second.
The thruster version is not street legal. Tesla is reportedly discussing it as a limited track-only program. This is a specialty product for people who own tracks or attend track days, not a commuter upgrade.
The Long Wait Since 2017
Musk first revealed this car in November 2017, tacked onto the end of the Tesla Semi reveal as a surprise. Original reservation holders put down $50,000 for a standard reservation or $250,000 for the Founders Series. Production was promised for 2020. Then it kept slipping. The pandemic, supply chain issues, Cybertruck production ramp, Semi production ramp. The reasons were real, but none of that made it easier to explain to someone who handed over $50k six years ago.
The current pricing stands at $200,000 base and $250,000 for Founders Series. Those numbers haven't changed since 2017, which is notable given what's happened to vehicle prices broadly over the same period.
When Does Production Actually Start
Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy confirmed production will happen at Gigafactory Texas. Musk is targeting 2027 or 2028, which the company describes as 12 to 18 months after the October 2026 demonstration. That's a careful framing. It's not "Q2 2027." It's "12 to 18 months after we show it off." Build in some buffer.
But here's the thing: having an actual event date with RSVPs and a venue means this is materially different from the vapor-ware phase. Tesla doesn't hold public events for cars that aren't close. The Cybertruck reveal was followed by production. The Semi reveal was followed by production. The pattern holds.
If you're one of the reservation holders who's been sitting on this for nine years, October 1st is at least a real date to put in your calendar. Whether the thrusters fire on schedule, and whether your deposit eventually converts to a car in your garage, are still open questions. But the event is happening.
Source: Teslarati