Musk hopes Tesla Roadster demo will be ready before end of 2025

Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims that a demo of the long-anticipated new Roadster is coming — and in the next couple of months.

Yesterday, host Joe Rogan asked Musk on his podcast (around 38 minutes into the over three-hour-long episode) whether the company is still doing the Roadster, which was first announced in 2017.

Musk said yes. "We're getting close to demonstrating the prototype," he said. "I think this will be...one thing I can guarantee is that this product demo will be unforgettable," Musk said. He repeated: "Unforgettable."

Musk said this a day after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that he tried to cancel his 2018 Roadster reservation, only to be met with a bounce-back email.

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"I really was excited for the car!" Altman said in a follow-up post. "And I understand delays. But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait." (Musk and Altman started OpenAI together, but their relationship has since strained.)

After the 2017 announcement of the revamped Roadster, production was scheduled to begin in 2020 and launch in 2021. However, it was then delayed again, first to 2022 and then to 2023.

In February 2024, Musk posted to X that he aimed to ship the Roadster in 2025. One feature he teased was that the Roadster would be able to go from zero to 60mph in less than a second. He also stated that, "I think it has a shot at being the most mind-blowing product demo of all time."

Musk said much of the same about the demo during his appearance yesterday on The Joe Rogan Experience — but with new, cryptic boasts about what the Roadster will be able to do.

"Whether it's good or bad, it'll be unforgettable," he joked about the demo when Rogan asked what he meant.

Rogan asked whether Musk could say more, and Musk replied with a quote from his "friend" billionaire Peter Thiel, that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don't have flying cars. He wouldn't respond to Rogan's direct question about whether the Roadster will be able to fly, just that Thiel should be able to purchase a flying car, and that we will have to see the demo.

"I can't do the unveil before the unveil," Musk said. "I think it has a shot at being the most memorable product unveil ever."

When Rogan asked when he plans on doing this, Musk said, "Hopefully before the end of the year."

"We need to make sure that it works. This is some crazy, crazy technology." He affirmed that this is different than what was previously announced.

"Is it even a car?" Musk asked himself. "I'm not sure. It looks like a car." He then said, "If you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it's crazier than that," but didn't elaborate.

The vague statements also came over a week after Tesla released its latest quarterly earnings, during which the EV company's profits fell 37 percent.