People who paid $50K to reserve a Roadster would have made bank investing that in Tesla stock instead

Tesla's Roadster reservation holders could have made a lot more if they had chosen an investment vehicle over an electric vehicle.

Tesla Tesla first unveiled plans to reboot the high-powered Roadster in 2017.

Reservations cost $50,000.

The company stock has skyrocketed since the announcement as the Roadster languished in limbo for nearly 9 years.

We did some back-of-the-napkin math to find out how much that $50,000 could have yielded if invested in Tesla stock instead.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is about to pull the wraps off the second-generation Roadster — again.

It's been nine years since Elon Musk said it would revive the Roadster.

Would-be buyers chomped at the bit to grab the two-door, 600-mile-range, high-powered electric car way back in November 2017.

They paid either $50,000 to reserve a spot in the car's queue or $250,000 to buy a Founders Series upfront.

Roughly nine years later, the car still hasn't entered production.

That could change soon, as Tesla is about to unveil the car — now apparently with cold-gas thrusters that might allow it to temporarily hover — on Thursday night.

That raised an expensive question: What if early Roadster buyers had put that money into Tesla stock instead? So we did some back-of-the-napkin math to figure it out.

Tesla shares closed at about $21 on November 17, 2017, the first trading day after Musk unveiled the car.

At roughly $360 in mid-October 2026, a $50,000 investment made in 2017 would now be worth between $850,000 and $900,000.