Tesla looks to start Model Y in 2019
Insider report says U.S. electric vehicle company aims to build one million units per year
Tesla is looking to start production of its Model Y SUV in the U.S. in November 2019 before setting up a factory in China two years later, two inside sources have told Reuters.
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is aiming to move one million examples of the compact crossover per year, despite the fact he admitted April 12 that orders of the Model Y’s sibling, the Model 3, would see a “time shift” of six to nine months’ delay.
Musk is taking preliminary bids from suppliers for the Model Y, Reuters quotes its sources as saying, which he plans to build in the automaker’s Fremont, Calif., plant beginning next year.
Tesla has offered no official comment on the Model Y’s production timeline.
The supplier contracts being sought by Tesla now are usually picked up two to two-and-ahalf years ahead of production, Reuters reports, making the rumoured start date very ambitious when compared to industry averages.
The projected one million units produced is also ambitious, considering Musk recently said getting the Model 3 to its target rate of 250,000 per year has been “production hell,” and that he’s been sleeping on the floor of the factory as he personally supervises assembly.
Musk took 500,000 advance orders for the Model 3 before production began July 2017, but admits that the delays in delivery have caused numerous depositors to cancel their orders.