Editor of the DailyKanban, E.W. Niedermeyer, tweeted this morning that he’s received a tip from a supplier source regarding Model Y.  The source claims that Tesla is sending out drawings and specs to solicit quotes for the Model 3 cross.  Also, the source claims production is targeted for March 1, 2020.




https://twitter.com/Tweetermeyer/status/958379164423221248

If this rumor is true, then I think it’s a good sign that Model Y development is pushing forward and on track.  It’s quite early for Tesla to solicit bids for Model Y parts, but my hunch would be that Tesla is trying to gauge pricing in an initial effort with suppliers.

If a targeted production start date of March 1, 2020 is accurate then I would expect the Model Y reveal to happen is late 2018 or early 2019.

The Model Y will be based on the Model 3 platform.  In Tesla’s Q2 2017 earnings call, Elon Musk explained:

Oh, and one thing I wanted to correct. I think in a prior call, we publicly had said that Model Y, or our compact SUV – it’s called Model Y. It may or may not be – would be a totally new architecture. Upon the council of my executive team – thank you. Thanks, guys – who reeled me back from the cliffs of insanity – much appreciated – the Model Y will in fact be using a substantial carryover from Model 3 in order to bring its market faster.

Yes. So that will really accelerate our ability to get to Model Y to market faster, because fundamentally people prefer a sedan, people prefer an SUV. And in fact, the SUV market is larger. It’s the biggest single product (32:35) I believe in the world.

So, I’d like to thank my executive team for stopping me from being a fool, and yes. The Model Y or whatever the hell will have relatively low technical and production risk as a result. I still think we want to do the crazy thing in the future, but we will punt that until after the compact SUV.

The Model Y has potential to address an even larger market than the Model 3 as the SUV market is hugely popular especially in the U.S.

Back in October 2015 Elon Musk hinted that the Model Y would have falcon wing doors

Falcon Wing doors on Model Y - Elon Musk Tweet

Falcon Wing doors on Model Y – Elon Musk Tweet

However, since that time many owners have experienced challenges with the reliability of the Model X falcon wing doors.  And I suspect (and hope) that Elon has changed his mind.  I personally think the Model Y should have regular doors to reduce complexity.

On another note, the person who tweeted the rumor this morning, Edward Niedermeyer, has a long bitter history with Tesla.  In his latest battle with Tesla, Niedermeyer posted an article in June 2016 criticizing Tesla and asserting safety defects on the Model S suspension.  Tesla posted a strong rebuttal and critique of Niedermeyer the following day.




Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, recently spoke at the Nordic Business Forum in Stockholm and Business Insider Nordic shares some details of Wozniak’s frustration with Elon and Tesla.

The crux of Wozniak’s frustration seems to be that he took Elon’s promises on the timeline of certain goals literally.  For those following Elon for many years, we know that Elon is terrible at keeping timeline goals, and that his stated timeline goals are usually aspirational goals that are unrealistic to attain.  However, Tesla usually does meet those goals, just late.

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