When we covered the new Tesla Roadster’s reveal, we said Japan availability hadn’t been announced and promised an update. Here it is: Tesla Japan is taking Roadster reservations on its official website right now. Getting in line costs ¥6.82 million, the only version on offer is the left-hand-drive Performance car, and no, you can’t fly it down the Shuto Expressway.
Japanese outlets ITmedia NEWS, Kuruma no News and TRANS CAR all confirmed the Japanese reservation window right after the reveal (October 15 in Texas, October 16 in Japan). We went through Tesla Japan’s reservation page and their reports so you don’t have to squint at the fine print.
What ¥6.82 million actually buys
To be clear up front, ¥6.82 million is a reservation payment, not the price of the car. Tesla hasn’t published a Japanese vehicle price yet. The payment comes in two pieces:
- ¥680,000 when you order, an order fee Tesla Japan labels fully refundable.
- ¥6,140,000 within 10 days of placing the reservation.
- The reservation is confirmed once Tesla receives the payment, and it can be cancelled if the balance isn’t paid within the 10-day window.
For comparison, the US reservation is $50,000, split into $5,000 up front and $45,000 later. As InsideEVs points out, Tesla’s US reservation agreement says the reservation is fully refundable and non-transferable. It also says, in plain English, that because the Roadster is still in development, Tesla “cannot guarantee when your vehicle will actually be delivered or if it will be delivered.” The Japanese page doesn’t promise a delivery date either. Read the Japanese terms carefully before you wire six million yen anywhere.
The bill also went up. When the reservation page quietly reappeared in September, ahead of the reveal, Japanese car blog Life in the FAST LANE reported ¥570,000 by card plus ¥5,114,000 by bank transfer, about ¥5.68 million in total. The post-reveal number is ¥1.14 million higher. Tesla hasn’t explained the change.
Performance only, left-hand drive only
At the reveal Tesla showed off three Roadster configurations, including the headline-grabbing version with SpaceX-style cold-gas thrusters that can hop off the ground. Japan gets one of them: the Performance trim. Tesla Japan’s page describes it as a two-seat, road-going car with active aerodynamics and a multi-mode suction system, the fan setup that sucks the car onto the tarmac for absurd cornering grip.
Two more details stand out:
- Left-hand drive only. In a country that drives on the left, that’s a real trade-off. It’s nothing new for Japan’s supercar crowd, though, where left-hand-drive imports have long been a status symbol of their own.
- Availability depends on local law. Tesla notes that what you can get depends on local regulations. As Kuruma no News points out, the flying tricks from the reveal video aren’t something you’ll be doing on Japanese public roads. InsideEVs reports that the flying version isn’t street legal anywhere, and it’s invite-only in the US.
When does it arrive?
Tesla hasn’t said when Japanese deliveries will start. Tesla is targeting 2028 for production, and the reveal-night numbers were wild: 0 to 60 mph in 0.81 seconds, according to Not a Tesla App. Its spec breakdown has the full trim-by-trim details.
The EVX News take
Japan getting a reservation window on day one says a lot. Tesla’s momentum here is real (the Model Y recently topped Japan’s import-model sales chart), and now Japan is in the first wave for Tesla’s halo car. Sure, ¥6.82 million is a lot of money to park in a queue. But for the collectors who line up for hypercars in Roppongi and Ginza, a two-seat Tesla that hits 60 in under a second might be the most interesting toy to arrive since the original Roadster reached Japanese buyers more than 15 years ago. We’ll update when Tesla announces Japanese pricing and delivery timing.
Sources: ITmedia NEWS, Kuruma no News (Yahoo! Japan), TRANS CAR, Life in the FAST LANE, InsideEVs, Not a Tesla App, Tesla Japan reservation page.
— The EVX News team
Featured image: Tesla, via Tesla on X.
