How to Reserve a Tesla Roadster in 2026 — Deposit, Queue and Multiple Accounts

TL;DR

  • Tesla reopened Roadster reservations on 19 September 2026: $5,000 by card immediately (fully refundable), then $45,000 by wire within 10 days.
  • Three trims: Performance ($50,000 deposit), Thrust ($250,000 deposit, under 0.9s 0-60), Rocket (invite-only, under 0.59s). No final price announced.
  • Households and traders often hold more than one reservation — and Tesla's site flags duplicates via cookies, browser fingerprint and IP.
  • One isolated browser profile per reservation, each with its own proxy, keeps them separate.

How the reservation actually works

Tesla reopened Roadster reservations on 19 September 2026. You pay $5,000 by card immediately — fully refundable — then $45,000 by wire within 10 days. No price announced yet. Three trims are offered with deposits from $50,000 to $250,000, and production is planned for 2028.

Read that twice: the card charge is the refundable placeholder; the wire is the commitment. The 10-day window on the wire is the part people miss. Miss it and your reservation is not a reservation.

Step-by-step: what you pay and when

Step 1 — the card charge. $5,000, paid by card the moment you reserve. Fully refundable. This is Tesla holding your place in the queue while you arrange the wire.

Step 2 — the wire. $45,000 by bank wire, due within 10 days of the card charge. This is the larger commitment and the deadline that matters.

Step 3 — the trim deposit. On top of the reservation mechanics, each trim carries its own deposit figure: $50,000 for Performance, $250,000 for Thrust. Rocket is invite-only, so there is no public deposit path for it.

Step 4 — the wait. Production is planned for 2028. No final price has been announced, so the deposit figures are the only money numbers on the table right now.

Practical tip: set a calendar reminder for day 7 after the card charge. Bank wires fail for stupid reasons — wrong reference, daily limits, timezone cutoffs — and you want three days of buffer, not three hours.

The three trims and what each deposit gets you

Performance — $50,000 deposit. Two seats, active aero. The lowest deposit of the three and the most accessible queue position.

Thrust — $250,000 deposit. Under 0.9 seconds 0-60. Five times the Performance deposit for the headline acceleration figure.

Rocket — invite-only. Single seat, under 0.59s. There is no public reservation path; Tesla decides who gets invited. If you are not on the list, the deposit figures above are irrelevant to you.

Because no final price is announced, think of deposits as queue tickets with a price tag, not as down payments on a known total.

Why people open more than one reservation

Three common reasons, all straightforward.

Households. Two drivers, two reservations. One card charge each, one wire each. Nothing exotic — just two people who both want the car.

Hedging the trim. The $5,000 card charge is fully refundable, which makes it cheap to hold two queue positions while you decide between Performance and Thrust. Decide later, cancel one, get the $5,000 back.

Traders and flippers. With production in 2028 and an invite-only Rocket trim, early queue positions have resale value. Refundable deposits make the downside small; the queue position is the asset.

All three run into the same technical wall: Tesla's site, like every modern reservation portal, watches for duplicates. Same cookies, same browser fingerprint, same IP across two reservations — and the system links them. Linked reservations can mean cancelled reservations, especially if the terms limit one per customer.

Common reservation mistakes

Missing the wire window. The 10-day clock starts at the card charge, not when you feel ready. Wires get held up by bank cutoffs, weekends and wrong references. Start the wire on day one or two.

Two reservations, one browser. The most common technical mistake. If both reservations share cookies and a fingerprint, Tesla's system links them — and linked duplicates are the first ones cancelled if terms limit one per customer.

Treating the deposit as the price. No final price has been announced. The $50,000 and $250,000 figures are deposits, not totals. Budget for the unknown, not the deposit.

No paper trail. Screenshot every confirmation screen and save every wire receipt with its reference number. If a reservation ever goes missing from your account, the receipt is your proof.

Table: single browser vs isolated profiles for reservations

  Single browser, two reservations Isolated profile per reservation
Cookies Shared — the site sees one visitor with two orders Separate — each reservation looks like a different visitor
Browser fingerprint Identical — canvas, fonts, WebGL all match Unique per profile
IP address Same IP on both Separate proxy per profile
Payment session Card details cross-contaminate Each profile keeps its own session
Duplicate risk High — trivially linkable Low — looks like separate devices

Frequently asked questions

Is the $5,000 deposit refundable?
Yes — the $5,000 card charge is fully refundable. The $45,000 wire due within 10 days is the larger commitment.

Can I reserve more than one Roadster?
Technically yes, but Tesla's site flags duplicates via cookies, fingerprint and IP. If you do, keep each reservation in its own isolated browser profile with its own proxy — and check Tesla's terms first.

When will the Roadster be delivered?
Production is planned for 2028, per the reveal. No firmer date has been given.

Reserving more than one? Keep each reservation in its own isolated profile — separate fingerprint, separate proxy, separate session. Download BeastBrowser free: isolated fingerprints per profile, built-in proxy manager, free plan with no card. $30/month flat for unlimited profiles on Windows and macOS.