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Tesla releases new image of Model Y electric CUV, Musk jokes about it having no steering wheel

While Tesla is still very much focused on Model 3 production, the automaker and CEO Elon Musk have still been gradually teasing the upcoming Model Y despite the new vehicle still being years away.

Tesla has now released another image of the upcoming all-electric compact SUV.

We don’t know much about the Model Y beside the fact that Tesla wants it to make it a Model 3-size utility vehicle.

Musk previously said that it would feature similar ‘Falcon Wing’ doors as seen on Model X, but that’s about it.

Last summer, Tesla released the first Model Y teaser – pictured below.

It didn’t show much of the vehicle, but now Tesla has released another image of a design sketch of the Model Y at today’s shareholder meeting (new one on the left and the previously released one on the right):

The windshield looks incredibly flat, but that’s often the case with design sketches.

Based on the sketches, the vehicle certainly looks bulkier than the Model 3, but Tesla is definitely presenting the images in a way that we don’t see the doors, which could be an attempt to not confirm the potential Falcon Wing doors.

During the meeting, Musk also joked about the Model Y potentially not having a steering wheel when talking about the vehicle not using any leather:

“Model Y will not have any leather in it, even in the steering wheel….even if it does have a steering wheel.”

That’s the extent of the information that Musk has shared about the actual vehicle, but the CEO has been vocal about the Model Y manufacturing program.

In the past, Musk elaborated on Tesla’s plan to bring Model Y, the automaker’s upcoming all-electric CUV, to production and he said that the vehicle will bring ‘a manufacturing revolution’ in 2020.

In February, Musk said that Tesla plans to unveil the Model Y production plans in the next 3-6 months and that the company will start capital investment into the program this year.

The CEO reiterated today that the vehicle should be unveiled in March 2019.

Electrek’s Take

It’s again hard to make anything out of the design sketches aside from the vague shape, which looks similar to the Model 3.

Let us know your hot take on it in the comment section below.

As for the no steering comment, while it sounded like a joke, it also seems like Musk was really considering it.

Considering Musk’s timeline for achieving fully self-driving capability is in about two years and the Model Y is planned to go hit production around 2020, it’s not impossible that it is in the plans for the new electric CUV.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

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