Tesla unveiled its Model Y crossover on Thursday, and the company’s stock took a tumble when the market opened the next morning. Why is that exactly? Crossovers are the hottest commodity in the auto industry right now, and Tesla’s Y will probably become its biggest-selling model.
The reaction has to do with a lack of “wow” factor from the car. From the front, it looks a whole lot like the Model 3 on which it is based, albeit with a higher stance. Just as Subaru turned its Legacy wagon into an SUV by raising it up and adding some body cladding and bigger wheels, Tesla gave the Model 3 an off-road makeover.
“The Model Y almost feels like an afterthought,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of industry analysis at Edmunds.com, in a statement. “The Model Y is essentially just a beefier, taller Model 3. The Model Y is the first Tesla that really feels like something from a mainstream car brand: a vehicle designed to make a company money, not make a statement.
“Despite its derivative design, it’s not unrealistic to think that the Model Y could end up being Tesla’s best-selling vehicle, given it has a competitive price and range,” she says, and if it winds up being “one of the safest SUVs on the market as Tesla hopes, that not-so-sexy selling point could be what makes it a success.”
In other words, the Model Y is not a disruptive force in the marketplace, as Teslas traditionally have been. The company reached for something like that with the larger Model X SUV, but that car’s most radical feature—the up-raising “falcon wing” doors—are its least popular feature. The Y is conservative, but in a way that will probably maximize sales.
Who knows when the crossover craze will end? Predictions of its demise have been consistently proven wrong. But it might have been nice if Tesla could get the new car on the market a little faster.
The specs and model lineup are certainly impressive. The first Y to reach American customers in the fall of 2020 will be the long-range version, with 300 miles before recharge. It will sell for $47,000. There will also be an all-wheel-drive version ($51,000) with an electric motor on each axle, and a performance version ($60,000)—with zero to 60 miles per hour times of 3.5 seconds. A 230-mile entry-level Model Y for $39,000 will arrive last, in 2021. Europe and China will also get the Y in early 2021.
Reserving the car requires a $2,500 deposit, with the full amount due on delivery. In the past, Tesla customers have jockeyed to be early on the delivery list. But maybe that euphoria has cooled a little.
So the Model Y will be priced between the Model S and 3, with the features consumers really want. Seven-passenger seating will be optional, and the company is saying it will offer 66 cubic feet of cargo room. Another good number is 0.23, the very slippery drag co-efficient (better than the Toyota Prius).
Tesla’s goal is to have sold a million cars by next year, and Elon Musk used the Model Y reveal event to point out that by February 2008 it had built only one. Not one model—one car, a Tesla Roadster that broke down a lot. “Ten years from now you may be driving a Tesla on Mars,” he said at the unveiling. “I think we actually could.”
Musk also said he expects the Model Y to achieve five-star safety ratings in every category. “With the battery pack low in the floor, it will have the functionality of an SUV but will glide like a sports car,” he said. “We’re bringing sexy back, quite literally.”
Well, no. The Model Y isn’t sexy, in the same way the game-changing Model S and Roadster were. But it looks enough like a generic hot crossover that people will snap it up, and they’ll get electrifying performance along with their functionality.
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