Tesla chose to debut its Model Y crossover at kind of a weird time and as such, it maybe didn't have the kind of impact that the brand had hoped for. There was certainly not as huge a reaction as people had to the unveiling of the Model 3.
Still, the company has continued to (mostly) quietly soldier away on getting the Model 3-based crossover into production as soon as possible, and apparently it's doing a good job because the company bragged about the project being significantly ahead of schedule in its Q3 earnings report today and subsequent call.
How far ahead of schedule is the Model Y, exactly? Close to six months, if the Big T is to be believed. It had initially forecast that the vehicle would start rolling off the line in Fremont, California, at the end of 2020 but now it has moved that estimate all the way up to summer of 2020.
During the quarterly earnings call, Musk stated that he'd driven some of the early production prototypes and that he came away believing that the Model Y will manage to outsell the S,3 and X combined. That's a pretty wild statement too because that implies that Tesla will be able to produce Y in sufficient numbers to meet that demand.
To that end, Musk confirmed on the call that the Model Y would be built in Shanghai as well as in Fremont, and given the size of the Gigafactory 3, that's entirely possible. As if that weren't enough, Musk also vowed to announce the location of the long-discussed European Gigafactory by the end of the year.
The one thing that we're curious about is just how much interest there is in the little electric crossover. That's why we want to know what you, our readers, have to say. How likely are you to buy the Model Y when it comes out? Are you a current Tesla owner or are you coming from another EV model? Are you waiting to ditch your ICE-powered vehicle for Model Y?
Let us know in the comments.
