2021 Tesla Model Y Crossover: What to Know

Big excitement is brewing at Tesla’s Design Studio in Hawthorne, California, tonight, March 14, 2019, as CEO Elon Musk will reveal the much-anticipated Model Y crossover SUV via a livestream scheduled to start at 8 p.m Pacific/11 p.m. Eastern. We’ll update this story.

The Tesla Model Y will be based on the Model 3. The fifth Tesla EV—after the original Roadster, the Model S, the Model X, and the Model 3—will share its wheelbase, chassis, and powertrain options with the brand’s current smallest model, the Model 3 sedan.

Parts commonality between the two is roughly 86 percent. That’s according to the company in a January 2019 earnings call. The Models S and X share just 30 percent of their parts. The increased commonality should make the Model Y easier to integrate into current assembly processes and make it somewhat less expensive to produce.

The Model Y is about 10 percent larger than the Model 3. Or so says Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a recent tweet. He also says it will have slightly less range from the same battery pack as the Model 3, which is rated for 220 miles with a full charge in the least-expensive Standard Range and 325 in the Long Range version. Even with the reduced range, Tesla is predicting demand to be perhaps 50 percent higher for the Model Y than the Model 3 owing to the former’s crossover body style.

It won’t have falcon-wing doors. The cool rear doors, as seen on the Model X, were said to be very expensive to develop and difficult to produce, and have reportedly been troublesome for consumers. So despite Elon tweeting the Model Y would have them, yeah, no. It won’t.

Prices are expected to start at $39,000 or so. The Model Y could start around $39,000 dollars for a base trim, but—as was the case with the long-discussed $35,000 Model 3, which is finally available to order—we expect it will be a few years before you can actually buy one at that price. Expect to pay double that for the highly optioned versions that are likely to make up the bulk (if not all) of production for some time.

It will be built in Shanghai and Reno. Production is slated to begin near the end of 2020 in Tesla’s Gigafactories in Shanghai, China, and Reno, Nevada.

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