{"id":880,"date":"2026-10-15T02:11:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T02:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/?p=880"},"modified":"2026-10-15T02:11:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T02:11:24","slug":"tesla-unveils-the-roadster-tonight-and-the-bit-campers-should-watch-isnt-the-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/?p=880","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Unveils the Roadster Tonight &#8211; and the Bit Campers Should Watch Isn&#8217;t the Speed"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tesla-roadster-reveal-alpine-range-camping-2026.avif\" alt=\"White Tesla Model Y with a rooftop tent at a remote alpine viewpoint at dusk\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Tonight, Tesla finally shows the second-generation Roadster. It has been roughly nine years since the prototype was wheeled out in 2017, the car has been delayed at least eight times, and a lot of people who put down deposits in 2017 have given up and asked for their money back.<\/p>\n<p>The reveal is at <strong>Waco, Texas, at 20:00 local time on 15 October<\/strong> &#8211; which is <strong>03:00 on 16 October in Central Europe<\/strong>, so most of us will be reading about it over breakfast rather than watching it live. It is invite-only, restricted to reservation holders, and you have to be 21 or over. The venue sits next to a SpaceX rocket test site, which tells you something about what they have planned.<\/p>\n<h2>What is expected<\/h2>\n<p>Tesla has confirmed almost nothing, so here is what reporting so far points to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tri-motor all-wheel drive, around <strong>10,000 Nm<\/strong> at the wheels<\/li>\n<li><strong>0-96 km\/h in about 1.9 seconds<\/strong>, and roughly <strong>1.1 seconds<\/strong> with the optional SpaceX cold-gas thruster package<\/li>\n<li>Top speed <strong>over 400 km\/h<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Range of about <strong>1,000 km<\/strong> from a <strong>200 kWh<\/strong> pack<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>900-volt<\/strong> architecture on 4680 cells, with roughly <strong>15 minutes<\/strong> of charging adding about <strong>600 km<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Base price around <strong>USD 200,000<\/strong>, Founders Series around <strong>USD 250,000<\/strong>, deposits of USD 50,000<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some reports also expect a demonstration of cold-gas thrusters and vacuum-based downforce &#8211; the company holds patents on electrically driven fans that suck the car onto the road &#8211; and there is even talk of driving through a loop. None of that is confirmed, and the delay from the original early-October date was blamed on wind, which is a hint that the demonstration happens outdoors.<\/p>\n<h2>Read the small print before you get excited<\/h2>\n<p><strong>None of those figures are confirmed until tonight.<\/strong> They come from reporting, patents and years of Musk quotes, not from Tesla&#8217;s spec sheet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Deliveries are a long way off.<\/strong> Musk has said production starts 12 to 18 months after the reveal. That means late 2027 at the earliest, with ordinary buyers more likely waiting until 2028. This is a reveal, not a launch &#8211; you cannot order one and drive it home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Europe is an open question.<\/strong> No European price, no homologation, no delivery date has been announced. Given how slowly the assisted-driving approval process is moving across the EU, assume nothing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Patents are not products.<\/strong> Tesla has filed for ground-effect aerodynamics, fan-driven downforce, steer-by-wire and cold-gas thrusters. Filing a patent and building something you can register for road use are very different things.<\/p>\n<h2>Why campers should care &#8211; and it isn&#8217;t the acceleration<\/h2>\n<p>Here is the honest version. The Roadster is a two-seat carbon-fibre showcase. It is a fantastic piece of engineering and it cannot carry a tent. There is no version of this where you sleep in it.<\/p>\n<p>But halo cars exist to drag technology down into the cars people actually buy. Every one of these things starts at the top:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A 200 kWh pack and 1,000 km of range.<\/strong> That is the number that matters for camping. Range anxiety is not about the commute; it is about the valley with nothing in it, the mountain pass, the ferry at 06:00.<\/li>\n<li><strong>900 volts and 15-minute charging.<\/strong> A coffee stop that puts 600 km back in the car turns a two-day drive into a one-day drive. That is the difference between a weekend and a week.<\/li>\n<li><strong>4680 cells and cheaper packs.<\/strong> Everything that makes a 200 kWh battery affordable makes a 75 kWh one much cheaper &#8211; and eventually makes a used one cheap enough for a first camping car.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tonight, ignore the 0-100 time. Watch the battery capacity, the voltage and the charging curve. Those are the three numbers that will quietly end up in the Model Y you can actually sleep in.<\/p>\n<h2>What you can do this weekend instead<\/h2>\n<p>You do not need a supercar to camp well. You need a flat floor, a way to stay warm without burning anything, and enough power to keep the lights on.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/?p=637\">Tesla Roof Top Tent<\/a> &#8211; turns any Model Y into a two-person bedroom above the wet ground, set up in minutes<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/?p=638\">Tesla Inflatable Air Mattress<\/a> &#8211; sleep inside the car instead, and keep the boot free for everything else<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/?p=612\">2048Wh LiFePO4 Portable Power Station<\/a> &#8211; 2048Wh of battery for lights, pumps, phones and laptops, so the car battery is untouched in the morning<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/?p=611\">Tesla Induction Cooktop<\/a> &#8211; a proper hot meal at the pitch without gas bottles or a camp stove in the wind<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/?p=613\">35L Dual-Zone Compressor Fridge<\/a> &#8211; dual zone, so one side is a fridge and the other is a freezer<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/?p=640\">Tablet Mount Holder<\/a> &#8211; for navigation, weather and the campsite booking you made at the last minute<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enjoy the show tonight if you are up at 3am. Then load the car and go and use the one you already own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tonight, Tesla finally shows the second-generation Roadster. It has been roughly nine years since the prototype was wheeled out in 2017, the car has been delayed at least eight times, and a lot of people who put down deposits in 2017 have given up and asked for their money back. The reveal is at Waco, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.auto-tsl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}