At its annual shareholder meeting organized at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View on Tuesday, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has released a teaser for its upcoming all-electric crossover vehicle — Model Y. The image attached above is the first render of the said electric vehicle, which Musk reiterated will be built on a brand new platform and enter production sometime in late 2019 (or early 2020).
Tesla already includes three all-electric variants in its portfolio — Model S, 3 and X, it is now planning to add Model Y to the said lineup. While we’ve previously only been greeted with murmurs of this all-electric compact SUV (a crossover vehicle), it has now been confirmed that the automaker is moving ahead with the same. The company is presently working on the Model Y, which was first revealed during the company’s earnings call last month.
Today, we’ve only been handed down the teaser image attached above and it doesn’t reveal much about the electric vehicle, except for the a certain design change that seems to be underway. The Model Y seems a bit bulkier and more sturdy than the previous-gen Tesla models, but we cannot say anything truly conclusive at this moment.
Musk has currently only shared the first computer render of Model Y, while we’re expected to receive a better glimpse at the vehicle in the coming year or so. Tesla is already creating excitement about the said crossover vehicle and will need to unveil the same over the next twelve months to garner interest and registrations for the same — before production kicks off around late 2019.
As reported earlier, Musk, in passing, had previously stated that the Model Y crossover vehicle will be based on a completely new underlying platform. Tesla was previously mulling the creation of the said electric vehicle on the same platform as the Model S/3 sedan. However, instead of re-purposing the existing designs, Tesla is now firm on its decision to introduce a whole new platform for the Model Y.
Part of this decision, to switch from the current platform, was driven by the company’s experience building the Model X. Musk is now calling it an over-confident mistake, since Tesla decided to build the Model X from the Model S platform — seeing it an easy manufacturing decision. But, the chief executive is now adamant about changing the core platform to build out an electric vehicle like ‘a car has never been built before.’
Talking about the underlying platform, Musk had previously mentioned that it’ll be a huge departure from the current platform as the automaker plans to eliminate the 12-volt battery architecture. This internal architecture is used in almost every gasoline/petrol-powered vehicle and powers most of the interior components such as the air conditioner/heater, power seats, and the infotainment system.
By the time Model Y gets into production, the monstrous Gigafactory that’s being built in the middle of the Nevada desert would be fully operational. Musk, during the shareholder meeting, said that the battery packs for the said electric vehicle will be produced at the aforementioned Gigafactory, whereas Model Y’s production line will be set up in a completely new factory. Tesla has also stated that it aims to build three to four new Gigafactories across the globe very soon.
