Tesla introduced a new electric sports utility vehicle slightly bigger and more expensive than its Model 3, pitched as an electric car for the masses. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk showed off the "Model Y" late Thursday at the company's design studio in the southern California city of Hawthorne, and the company began taking orders online.
The all-electric Model Y has a starting price of $39,000 for a version with a 230-mile (370-kilometer) range. A long-range version of the SUV capable of traveling 300 miles (483 kilometers) on a single charge was priced at $47,000. Deliveries were expected to begin late next year for the higher-priced Model Y vehicles, with the standard-range version likely get to buyers by spring of 2021, according to Tesla.
Musk said the Model Y has "the functionality of an SUV but it will ride like a sports car" accelerating from stand-still to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds. Model Y featured a "panoramic glass roof" and could seat seven people, according to Musk.
Entry-level SUVs are a hot segment of the vehicle market. "Even though the Model Y will debut with promises of grandeur, if there are any chinks in Tesla's brand armor, this vehicle will expose them," said Edmunds executive director of industry analysis Jessica Caldwell. "Tesla is about to learn exactly what it means to go head-to-head with the German automakers."