Tesla’s Model Y compact SUV, which is slated to be the next offering after the Model 3 debuts later this year, is “a few years away,” Tesla chief Elon Musk
tweeted on Friday.
Musk also said the dual-motor all-wheel-drive variant of the Model 3 won’t be available until next year, in a series of tweets in which he also
showed a final prototype of the car.
Musk first started disclosing
details about the Model Y in fall 2015, though not much has been mentioned since. The model is likely to have the famed (or infamous, depending on how much trouble they cause) falcon-winged doors of the Model X SUV. Beyond that, the Model Y will be to the Model 3 what the Model X is to the Model S, i.e. smaller and cheaper. As for being part of the 500,000 vehicles the California-based automaker expects to deliver next year, though? Not in the cards.
That said, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas told clients this week that the Model Y will eventually be Tesla’s best-selling model.
“We believe the small SUV segment will eventually be the largest segment in the world across all OEMs,” Jonas wrote. “We also expect Model Y to be at the center of an on-demand ride sharing service (‘Tesla Mobility’) due to its larger passenger compartment, luggage space, and modular seat configuration.””
As for the Model 3, that variant will be two-wheel-drive only when it starts deliveries this summer. Musk
tweeted that the company was “minimizing configuration complexity to keep the production ramp on schedule. RWD only for early production, just like Model S.”
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