Tesla Pushes Back Long-Awaited Roadster Reveal, Blaming Weather

Tesla fans waiting to finally see the second-generation Roadster will need a little more patience. The company has called off a presentation that had been pencilled in for 1 October, citing forecasts of “severe conditions” and the fact that the gathering could only take place in the open air. A new date of 15 October has been set, a slip of only two weeks.

Reports suggest the event was meant to be staged in Waco, Texas, around a 90-minute drive north of Tesla’s Austin base. Yet a glance at the local outlook for 1 October points to mild temperatures, some breeze and rain — hardly the kind of weather most people would call severe. Tesla has not elaborated on what prompted the decision.

Whatever the reasoning, two weeks barely registers in the context of this saga. The Roadster’s prototype broke cover back in November 2017, with production originally promised for 2020. That timeline has been reset again and again, and would-be owners have been able to place reservations since 2022. In Germany, for instance, holding a spot requires an initial €4,000 deposit, followed by a mandatory €39,000 bank transfer within ten days.

What reservation holders will eventually receive remains an open question, and the answer may only start to emerge on the new date. One talking point is the rocket-thruster package CEO Elon Musk has touted — a feature that could run into trouble securing approval for use on European public roads.