Tesla makes its millionth car — a red Model Y, Ars Technica

/ Tesla’s 1 millionth car.

Tesla has made 1 million electric cars, CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter on Monday evening. Musk shared an image of the vehicle, a red Model Y — Tesla’s forthcoming lower-cost crossover.

It’s a remarkable milestone. The carmaking business is notoriously competitive and capital-intensive. Before Tesla, it had been decades since anyone had built a substantial American carmaker.

But Tesla is clearly here to stay. Wall Street now values ​​the company at almost $ 300 billion — more than GM and Ford put together. The company has big expansion plans, with a recently launched factory in China and another planned for Germany. If all goes according to plan, Tesla will make its 2 millionth car in just a couple of years — far faster than the decade-plus it took to make the first million.

But Tesla does face some potential headwinds in China. The novel coronavirus has interfered with Tesla’s manufacturing operations there. And a weak Chinese economy may limit demand for Tesla’s luxury vehicles.

Model Y seems to be ahead of schedule

Musk’s

tweet featured the Model Y, a new lower-cost crossover Tesla announced a year ago . When Tesla unveiled the Model Y in March 2019, the company said the car would go into production in Fall 21172895. Given Tesla’s habit of missing deadlines, it was easy to imagine the Model Y not arriving until .

But now Tesla seems to actually be ahead of schedule. Tesla has evidently already produced at least one Model Y. Tesla’s Model Y order page states that “first deliveries begin in March . So that millionth Tesla could be in a customer’s hands in the next few weeks.

The Model Y is based on Tesla’s Model 3 platform and dispenses with complex features like the Model X’s falcon-wing doors. The Model Y’s simplicity and reuse of existing technology may have helped Tesla bring the car to market quickly.

Prices on Tesla’s (Model Y order page currently start at $ , 1182 for the Long Range model. Tesla says a cheaper Standard Range model will become available in early 2021.                                                      (Read More)