Tesla’s Model 3 will hit the market by the end of this year, but the company also plans to produce another important vehicle which was confirmed in July 2016 by Musk personally. We are talking about a new compact SUV called the Model Y, during the last week Musk stated that this all-electric SUV will go on sale by 2024. However, head of the company didn’t say anything else about this car since there is a long way to go, but we will try to guess what the Model Y is going to look like based on everything we know so far.
Platform and Production
This SUV is expected to sit on the entirely new platform, and this is quite unexpected because until now we have believed that it will share the platform with the Model 3. Musk spoke during Tesla’s first earnings call and indicated that the company plans to make important automation enhancements for the production of the Model 3, but the fun starts with the Model Y.
“With the Model 3, I think we will be roughly comparable with the best high-volume vehicle production lines in the world. Better in some respects, a little worse in others, but roughly comparable,” Musk said.
“Then where things will really be a step change beyond any other auto manufacturer will be the Model Y factory. And this is both a function of designing the product to be easy to manufacture and easy to automate as well as designing the factory itself. So Model Y is where I think it really becomes a step change,” he stated.
According to the November announcement, Tesla was acquiring Grohmann Engineering, a German company which makes automated manufacturing systems. Musk said in a statement: “As the machine that builds the machine, our factories are so important that we believe they will ultimately deserve an order of magnitude more attention in engineering than what they produce. At very high production volumes, the factory becomes more of a product than the product itself.”
Falcon Wing Doors?
Musk tweeted in October that Model Y would come with falcon-wing doors back in 2015 and in response to a follower’s question about the Model 3 and this kind of doors, the CEO replied: “there will be a Model 3 and a Model Y. One of the two will.” The tweet was later deleted. Model 3 doesn’t feature falcon-wing doors, so does this mean that Model Y will come with these?
A Solar Roof
Musk also mentioned that Tesla plans to introduce a solar roof as an optional feature and he said that it “would probably be an option” for Model 3. Moreover, right after the displaying of the solar glass shingles in October last year, he said that the same glass tech could be used for a car’s roof. The roof would be net positive, which means that energy would be created to power features such as defrosters. Expect this to come for both the Model 3 and the Model Y.
A Heads-Up Display
A heads-up display which shows important data directly on the windshield might come as a part of the Model Y. So far, Tesla vehicles don’t come with such a piece of equipment, but we are still waiting to see the interior of the Model 3. Considering that all-electric SUV should be delivered in 3 years approximately, an optional heads-up display would be nice.
Fully-Autonomous Tech?
For quite some time this company offers semi-autonomous tech called Autopilot, but Musk announced last year that the self-driving tech would go to another level or be completely autonomous. All of the models produced after October 2016 have had the hardware to eventually be fully autonomous, and the full self-driving system costs $8,000. Will Tesla manage to create this in two-three years? It is hard to tell, but an updated hardware is what we expect in the future Model Y.
Range and Cargo
We are not familiar with the range of the new vehicle, but since the rivalry Chevrolet Bolt comes with 238 miles per charge, Model Y will most likely be launched with at least slightly more than that. The range of the Model 3 will be 215 miles.
The Model X is a spacious vehicle, but because the second row of seats couldn’t fold flat, there was not a sufficient amount of cargo space. The young automaker changed that, and the second row can be folded now resulting in 88 cubic feet of cargo storage. Since they solved this problem, we expect Model Y to come with lots of interior space and transport possibilities.
2020 Tesla Model Y Price
The pricing remains unknown, but the upcoming SUV will probably have a more competitive price tag. The Chevy Bolt costs $37,500 which means that Palo Alto-based company would need to make the Model Y significantly cheaper than the Model X, so around $40,000 might be a possibility.
Tesla Model Y Release Date
Meanwhile, Tesla plans to produce one million vehicles per year by 2024, and Elon Musk said: “I think we need to come out with the Model Y sometime in 2024 or aspirationally late 2019 and then I think a million units is quite likely, maybe more.”
