Roadster (next generation)

The next-generation Tesla Roadster is a battery-electric sports car that Tesla unveiled in 2017 to prove an electric car can beat any gasoline supercar on the numbers people argue about. The claims are wild: 0 to 60 miles per hour in 1.9 seconds, a top speed above 250 mph, an estimated 620 miles of range (about 1,000 kilometers) from a 200 kilowatt-hour battery (a kilowatt-hour, kWh, is roughly the energy a microwave uses running for an hour), and 7,400 pound-feet of wheel torque from a three-motor all-wheel-drive setup making over 1,000 horsepower. More than eight years later, it still has not been delivered.

What is the Next-Generation Roadster?

It is a two-seat battery-electric hypercar (2+2, meaning two real seats and two tiny ones behind), and it sits at the very top of Tesla's lineup. Tesla revealed it on November 16, 2017, rolling the low red car out of the trailer of the electric Semi truck at the same event. You buy it by reservation rather than off a lot: a base car at $200,000, a limited Founders Series at $250,000, and a refundable $50,000 deposit to hold a standard order. Every number on the spec sheet was written to embarrass the gasoline supercars it lines up against.

Why the Roadster Exists

The Roadster is a halo car, the flagship that sets the mood for a whole brand and shows what the technology can do before cheaper products get it. That plan goes back to Tesla's 2006 master plan: start at the premium end, prove the engineering, raise money, then work down toward regular buyers. The original 2008 Roadster ran that play once, and this one runs it again up at hypercar heights.

There is a quieter financial design here too, because the price ladder did real work the moment reservations opened.

A standard reservation took a $50,000 refundable deposit, the base car was set at $200,000, and a 1,000-unit Founders Series went for $250,000. The Founders Series was a way to raise cash without selling new stock, and selling out within days brought in roughly $250 million up front, more or less an interest-free loan from the most eager customers a company could ever ask for.

How it Works

Electric motors give you their full pulling power the instant they start turning, which is why the base car can claim 1.9 seconds to 60 with none of a gasoline engine's wind-up. The three motors, plus torque vectoring (sending a different amount of power to each wheel), put all 7,400 pound-feet of that force down without lighting up the tires.

Then there is the optional SpaceX package.

The package adds roughly ten small cold-gas thrusters, the same gentle jets that nudge spacecraft, put to work shoving a road car. Tesla claims they cut the 0-60 time to under 1.1 seconds, and Elon later suggested under one second. Per Grokipedia, Elon called the acceleration the least interesting part of what the package can do, which is a wild thing to say about a car that briefly out-accelerates gravity.

The Economics of the Roadster

Real revenue from selling these cars is still entirely in the future. The Founders Series alone brought in roughly $250 million up front, and thousands more $50,000 deposits gave Tesla cash to develop the car without borrowing or selling stock. But no car has been delivered, so the Roadster has worked less as a source of sales and more as a brand halo and a financing tool. For a reservation holder, what you have so far is a deposit that has sat for more than eight years with no key in hand.

Current Status of Roadster

This is the part of the story that has worn the worst. The car was unveiled with a 2020 production target, and that date has been moving ever since.

Every time a date arrives, a new one shows up further out. The original 2020 became 2023 in September 2021, when Elon pointed to putting the Cybertruck and Full Self-Driving (Tesla's driver-assistance software) first. By November 2025 the stated start was 2027 or 2028. As of mid-2026, more than eight years after the reveal, the Roadster still has not shipped, with only a few prototypes and no confirmed production line.

What Comes Next

Tesla has leaned into spectacle rather than dates. In October 2025, on The Joe Rogan Experience, Elon teased that the Roadster might fly or hover, answering investor Peter Thiel's old complaint that we still have no flying cars by suggesting you should be able to buy one. Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen backed up plans for an "epic demo" of the car by year-end. Whether the final production numbers (range, price, the 1.9-second claim) match the 2017 concept is still an open question, and the gap between a demo and a delivery is what has defined this product.

The Bottom Line

The next-generation Roadster is the boldest thing Tesla has ever said about what an electric car can be, and also the promise it has taken longest to keep. It has already done its financing job and its marketing job. The only job left is the hard one, showing up in a customer's driveway. If anyone can still pull it off, it is the man who has turned improbable promises into shipping products his whole career.

Related

Keep reading: Robotaxi Network, Robovan. Zoom out to the Tesla overview, or open the Tesla Lineup Explorer.