Tesla Roadster now has a date. On September 12, 2026, Tesla posted a teaser and added a live countdown on Tesla.com for an October 1, 2026 unveil.
That gives buyers and watchers a fixed point after years of drift. It also puts the Roadster back on the clock heading into Q4 2026.
Go for launch on Tesla.com
The teaser carried the caption “Go for launch.” The page update points to October 1, 2026, one day after the close of Q3 2026.
The Roadster page had sat without a meaningful update for roughly nine years. That long pause made even a simple countdown worth noticing.
Elon Musk and the 2017 prototype
Elon Musk had previously driven the silver Roadster prototype onto a runway in 2017. He also described the finished car as “very different from what was shown previously.”
Tesla first showed the next-generation Roadster in November 2017. At the time, the company said it would do 0–60 mph in under 2 seconds, reach a 250+ mph top speed, and deliver a 620-mile range.
Four plumes on the teaser
The teaser image shows the rear three-quarter of a low, extremely wide vehicle with a full-width red light bar. It also shows four bright white plumes firing from behind the car.
Those plumes line up with years of hints about a SpaceX package with cold-gas thrusters. If Tesla leans into that setup on October 1, the reveal will need to show whether those plumes are just a visual cue or part of the car’s actual hardware.
Reservations for the Roadster opened at $50,000 for the base car and $250,000 for the Founders Series edition. The practical question now is whether Tesla uses October 1 to show a production-intent car or simply updates the design that has been sitting on Tesla.com for years.
The timing also drops the Roadster into a crowded late-September stretch, with Starship Flight 14 targeted around September 18 and Tesla Semi's dedicated launch event scheduled for September 24. For Roadster reservation holders, October 1 is now the first hard checkpoint after years of delay.
