Tesla has pushed back the long-awaited unveiling and product demo of the next-generation Roadster, with Elon Musk confirming at today’s annual shareholder meeting that the company is now targeting April 1, 2026 for the first public showing of the supercar.
The shift marks a significant delay from Musk’s earlier promise that the “epic” and “mind-blowing” demo would take place before the end of this year, a timeline that has been reiterated several times this year both by Musk himself and by other executives.
Along with delaying the unveiling and demonstration, production of the Roadster will also begin later than everyone was anticipating. Musk said Tesla now expects production to begin roughly one year after the unveiling, placing the start of manufacturing sometime in the first half of 2027.
If this timeline holds, that would make it nearly a decade since the next-generation Roadster was initially announced in 2017.
Despite the revised schedule, Musk reiterated that the Roadster will be worth the wait. In his most recent comments, made on the Joe Rogan Podcast, he said the “product demo will be unforgettable,” suggesting it may even be able to fly briefly.
Musk has previously teased a SpaceX package for the next-generation Tesla Roadster, incorporating cold-gas thrusters to boost acceleration and potentially enable brief hovering capabilities.
While the timeline shift may disappoint fans who expected to see the Roadster this year, Tesla’s track record suggests that when the event does happen, it will be anything but ordinary.
