Gary Zhou 
Tesla reopened reservations for its next-generation Roadster globally and orders are planned to be fulfilled in 2023. Tesla unveiled the new Roadster in 2017 but had to put orders on hold to focus on ramping up production of its Model 3 sedan and Model Y — and building new factories as part of that. This gave customers the option to buy more affordable EVs instead of having those put on hold to produce the Roadster.
During the grand opening of Giga Texas last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that production for the Roadster is scheduled for 2023 and the reopening of orders reflects Tesla’s confidence that it will be able to produce and deliver them on time.
If you’d like to reserve the Roadster, Tesla requires an upfront payment of $5,000 with an additional deposit of $45,000 due within 10 days of your reservation. Tesla added that the reservations are not final until the additional wire transfer of $45,000 is received.
Of course, the $50,000 reservation cost isn’t a new thing, even though a few headlines have been focused on it as if it were. In 2020, I wrote this article about the next-gen Roadster being at the Petersen Automotive Museum last May and mentioned that the base model would start at $200,000 with a $50,000 base reservation that was due in 10 days. You can read that article here.
For those worried about the deposit and price tag, I think it’s a safe bet that Tesla is marketing this toward a specific market — a niche of car collectors who would not think twice about spending $200,000 on a collector’s item.
