Todd Haushalter is an online-gaming executive in Las Vegas. Tesla unveiled its new Roadster in November 2017. A few weeks later, he paid the company a $250,000 deposit. That bought him a place in line for one of 1,000 Founders Series cars. Then he waited. Tesla said production would start in 2020. It didn't. He wrote to the board and heard nothing back. On Sept. 12, the first word in nearly nine years arrived, an invitation to a launch event. The reveal is this coming week in Waco, Texas. He still doesn't know the price.
Christopher Otts tells the story in the Journal. Tesla has taken reservations on and off since 2017, at $50,000 and up. The launch event was first set for Oct. 1. Thunderstorms pushed it back. On a 2024 investor call, Elon Musk thanked the “long-suffering deposit holders.” He has said this will be the last Tesla built for a human to drive. Jon McNeill, a former Tesla president, says a pricey, low-volume car could help Tesla's cash flow while its robot bets mature. He points to Ferrari (RACE) as proof that a few cars at a high price can earn a lot.
Big claims, no test results
In 2017 Musk said the car would go 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds. He said it would top 250 mph and go 620 miles on a charge. In 2024 he said under one second to 60. For scale, a Formula One car takes about 2.5 seconds. Tesla's own performance Model S does it in under two. Sam Abuelsamid, an engineer and longtime industry analyst, says anything quicker belongs in a tightly controlled setting with pro drivers and fire gear. Musk has also hinted the car might hover, using SpaceX thrusters. In 2018 he described an optional package of 10 small ones. All of these are Musk's claims, with no test results.
Some buyers gave up. Sam Altman, who runs OpenAI, put down $50,000 in 2018 and later tried to cancel. In a spat on X, Musk said Tesla had refunded the money. Jerry Heasley, a Texas car collector and freelance auto writer, talked Tesla into returning his $50,000 deposit from 2017. That took until 2025. Now he's having second thoughts. “Maybe I should have hung in there,” he said. Phil Trubey, a San Diego tech entrepreneur, also paid $250,000 for a Founders Series car. His performance Model S already gives him more speed than his stomach can take. He and his son head to Texas on Thursday to see the car.
Our read
We file this under Time Value of Money (M3), with a Behavioral lesson underneath. A deposit with no delivery date is a loan to the seller at 0%. For scale, the IRS minimum rate on a family loan of three to nine years is about 4.5%, by the Tax Report on the same page. Now our own arithmetic, not the paper's. Even at 4% a year, $250,000 grows by more than 40% in nine years with compounding. That's over $100,000 of interest on one $250,000 deposit, money the buyer never saw. The two refunds in the story came only because the buyers asked. Tesla (TSLA) closed Friday at 382.70, up 7.70 on the day and down 14.90% this year. It's held at weight in 13 books; nothing added.
The planning move is small. Before you put money down on anything, get two things in writing. The delivery date, and what happens to your money if the date slips. Then ask what that cash could earn somewhere safe while you wait. You check the gutters before the first storm. Check a deposit's terms before the money leaves, and bring any old deposits to your next review.