Tesla Wants $50,000 Roadster Deposits Before Anyone Sees the Car

Tesla is demanding $50,000 from buyers to reserve its new Roadster — a car nobody outside the company has seen yet.

The electric-vehicle maker reopened Roadster reservations this week, asking customers to pay $5,000 upfront by credit card, an amount Tesla describes as fully refundable, according to Fox Business News. Buyers must then wire an additional $45,000 within 10 days to lock in their spot.

The terms echo a promise Tesla made in November 2017, when it first took $50,000 reservations and promised production by 2020. Nearly nine years later, that original cohort of buyers has not received a single car. Some have fought just to recover their deposits after canceling. YouTuber Marques Brownlee and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman both went public this year with complaints about stalled refunds.

This time, Tesla is collecting money before revealing what buyers are paying for. The company plans to disclose pricing, specifications and production targets at an event on Oct. 1 near Waco, Texas.

Elon Musk has spent months teasing the reveal. The centerpiece of his pitch is a demonstration built around SpaceX-designed cold gas thrusters, which he claims will let the car "fly" — or at least hover.

"It'll be a banger," Musk said at the All-In Summit this month. "Excitement guaranteed. Success is not guaranteed, but excitement is."

Musk's own hedge on "success" underscores the track record. The Roadster has become one of the longest-running open loops in Tesla's product lineup, outlasting multiple vehicle launches, price wars and strategy shifts since 2017.

The market is pricing in more delay. On Polymarket, bettors currently give a Roadster delivery by the end of 2026 a 4.5% chance.

For Tesla, the reservation program offers a fresh pool of interest-free capital from its most committed customers, while shifting delivery risk entirely to buyers. For those customers, the calculus is starker than in 2017: the same $50,000 outlay, a longer wait already on the books, and a refund process that even high-profile figures have found slow.

The Oct. 1 event will show whether Tesla can convert nine years of promises into a production plan with dates attached. Until it publishes firm specs and a delivery timeline, the $50,000 deposits rest on little more than Musk's guarantee of excitement.