Tesla revealed on Monday that it is already shipping out the first Model Y crossover to customers, six months ahead of schedule.
With reports of shipments being delivered last week, the company confirmed the rumours with a tweet which included a video of the car being assembled before hitting the road.
Model Y deliveries begin!https://t.co/ZhuiM5MTOf pic.twitter.com/3gX6MBPmhp
— Tesla (@Tesla) March 16, 2020
It was announced in January that the production of the Model Y had begun with the first deliveries of the all-electric compact crossover planned by the end of the first quarter of 2020. Tesla CEO Elon Musk initially said that only a limited number of the Model Y would be available.
When Musk revealed a prototype of the Model Y last March, which looked strikingly similar to the Model 3, he pinned his hopes on a fall 2020 launch.
Now that deliveries are being made, the differences and similarities between the new product and the Model 3 are observable.
For those who are interested. Model Y vs Model 3 dimensions. Key takeaways are 1. Y has more overall headroom 2. Y has slightly less legroom in front but more in rear 3. Y is surprisingly narrow in rear than 3 in terms of hip room 4. Y has 4x more cargo space pic.twitter.com/xGCaWJ56xx
— David Lim (@Lim_David) March 14, 2020
The company's approach to the Model Y was for it to share as much as possible with the Model 3, saving Tesla from having to design the Model Y from scratch, and to reuse parts of the Model 3 manufacturing process. This strategy could explain the speedy timing in which Tesla was able to get the Model Y onto the market.
A similar strategy was supposed to take place with the Model X, a premium SUV released in 2015 which was supposed to be a slight modification of the Model S.
However, the Model X came in behind schedule and above budget due to sweeping changes and additions.
Tesla is selling the more expensive versions of the Model Y to begin with. At present, the cheapest Model Y available is a Long Range model with a starting price of $52,990.
A high-end Performance model, offering quicker 0-60 times and a higher top speed, can be purchased for an additional $8,000.
