On June 6, The Information reported, citing four people familiar with the matter, that Tesla has postponed a public demonstration of its next-generation Roadster sports car originally scheduled for August or later. This marks yet another delay for the sports car that first debuted in prototype form nearly nine years ago.
The demonstration, expected to take place in Texas, is intended to showcase SpaceX's cold gas thruster system, which Tesla claims will allow the Roadster to achieve extremely high acceleration and even lift the vehicle into the air.
Another delay, no end.
We've been closely following the Roadster's launch plans for the past nine years, and it's become a classic case of broken promises. CEO Elon Musk said in October 2025 that the company planned to release the new Roadster on April 1, 2026.
However, this date passed and the press conference was not held as scheduled. Later, he announced on X that the launch event would be postponed to late May or early June.
Now, according to sources from The Information, the launch may have to wait until August or even later.
This is the Roadster's first vehicle event since the Cybercab launch in October 2024 - nearly two years ago - but Tesla still can't confirm a specific date.
The prototype was first unveiled in November 2017, with production promised to begin in 2020. Since then, Musk has delayed the production schedule at least eight times. At Tesla's November 2025 shareholder meeting, he set the demonstration date for April 1, 2026 - April Fools' Day - and publicly stated that this date allowed him to "deny" it. The mass production date has been postponed to 2027-2028.
In March 2026, he changed the wording from "demo" to "launch" and pushed the date to late April. Then in the first quarter 2026 earnings conference call, he said that "it may be released in about a month." It's August now.
The SpaceX thruster system is a core component.
The report reveals more details about the demonstration. The event is intended to showcase the cold gas propulsion system for the Roadster sports car developed by Tesla in cooperation with SpaceX. The system is internally code-named "A71". The system is designed to significantly improve the vehicle's acceleration and, as Musk has long claimed, allow it to briefly lift off the ground.
According to two sources with The Information, Tesla and SpaceX employees showed Musk an early demonstration of the A71 system in late April. The fact that Tesla was still conducting internal demonstrations in late April also explains why the public launch has been repeatedly postponed.
According to reports, Tesla plans to produce a limited edition SpaceX Roadster sports car, which will be equipped with a SpaceX thruster system, and will also launch a "scaled down version" of the Roadster. Musk has been talking about SpaceX's system since 2018, which he described as about 10 cold-air rocket thrusters that would replace the rear seats and improve the vehicle's cornering, braking and acceleration capabilities. He claims the car can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 1.1 seconds and even says the car can levitate in the air.
After eight years of promise, it's still unclear whether these features will eventually make it to production cars.
Buyers with reservations up to $50,000 are still waiting
Some early reservers paid $50,000 to secure their spot in the Roadster queue starting in 2017. Founding series buyers, in turn, pledged $250,000. Nearly a decade later, not one of them has seen a production car.
When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tried to cancel his pre-ordered Tesla Roadster (with a reservation date of October 2025), he found that the reservation email box had been closed, which completely angered Tesla.
Meanwhile, rivals such as Rimac, Lotus and Xiaomi have delivered high-performance electric vehicles, while the Tesla Roadster has remained in the concept stage.
Tesla did not respond to The Information's request for comment.
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Musk confirmed that Tesla's new Roadster will be released in late April. It has been in development for more than nine years and has been delayed many times.