Electric cars are now officially S3XY. Tesla revealed the final component of Elon Musk’s suggestive orthographic adventure at the usual sound-and-light show at the Hawthorne Design Studio.
There were few surprises, other than the fact that Tesla will offer an optional 7-seat configuration. The Y’s form factor is both practical (it’s smaller than the X, but apparently offers more usable cargo capacity than the 3) and stylish (don’t call it a hatchback – according to Tesla, it’s a mid-size SUV – and whatever you do, do not mention that it looks just like a Prius).
Tesla has said that Model Y shares about 75 percent of its components with Model 3, which should allow a cheaper and faster production ramp, and that the new vehicle will “most likely” be manufactured at Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.
Model Y boasts a 0.23 drag coefficient and 66 cubic feet of cargo space. It will offer up to 300 miles of range, a 0-60 time as low as 3.5 seconds and a top speed of up to 150 mph.
“It has the functionality of an SUV, but it will ride like a sports car, so this thing will be really tight on corners,” said Elon Musk. “This will be the safest mid-sized SUV by far.”
Musk also implied that Model Y will have all the hardware required for full self-driving functionality: “The cool thing is, it’s ‘feature complete’…It will be able to do basically anything just with software upgrades.”
Deliveries of the $47,000 Long Range version, with 300 miles of range, along with the $60,000 performance version, are expected to begin in fall 2020. The $39,000 Standard Range variant, with 230 miles of range, is promised for spring 2021.
The Model Y online design studio is now open, and buyers can place an order with a $2,500 deposit.