Tesla Model Y: Teaser for Electric Crossover Unveiled; Production to Begin in 2019?
The world was finally given a glimpse of Tesla's upcoming all-electric compact sports utility vehicle dubbed Model Y.
During the automaker's annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, June 6, CEO Elon Musk released the first teaser image for the Model Y.
Apart from a dark silhouette of the vehicle's front fascia, not much is revealed by the image. However, it does confirm that Model Y will be a crossover that will sit in between Model X and Model 3. In terms of design, the all-electric compact SUV appears to share some similarities with Tesla's upcoming sedan.
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Musk also mentioned that Tesla will begin production of the Model Y in 2019 and possibly ramp up production efforts by 2020. Given this timeline, it's possible that the upcoming vehicle will be unveiled late next year, in order to open up reservations for the electric crossover.
The Tesla executive further revealed that Model Y will be built in a new factory because their current Fremont production facility is said to be at full capacity already. However, an exact location for the new factory has not been determined yet.
Based on the company's experiences in production, it has decided to build Model Y on a "completely different" platform than the Model 3.
"There has been some criticism, like we should sort of derive from the Model 3 platform. But I think actually we made a mistake in trying to derive the Model X from the Model S platform. It would have been better to just design an SUV the way an SUV should be designed," Musk explained.
However, the drawback of using a new platform would mean a longer development period.
Aside from the details revealed at the shareholder meeting, a few other details have been teased by Musk in the last few months. He revealed that Model Y will have "falcon wing" doors similar to the Model X but will be much simpler like Model 3. In order to streamline the production process, Model Y will also use a new system that reduces overall wiring.
Tesla did not reveal a release date for the Model Y, but the automaker is expected to focus first on the production of the Model 3 which is slated to begin in July.
