Tesla's Musk Announces " Model Y" Coming 2020

By: Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO, Feb. 5 (SEE) - Tesla announced that it's getting close to making the most important vehicle in its lineup" Model Y".

CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla will begin preparing for 2020 production of the mass market SUV. He expects work to begin sometime this year, and he predicted the Model Y would become Tesla's best selling vehicle, replacing in this regard, Toyota Rav 4.

"The demand for Model Y will be maybe 50% higher than Model 3, could be even double," Musk told investors on a recent conference call.

Musk said the vehicle, with its distinctive falcon wing rear doors and high windshield, proved difficult to make.

SUVs are key for the entire auto industry as American car buyers shift away from sedans.One of reason electric vehicles haven't taken off is because most of them have been available only in sedan models, Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for AutoTrader, told CNN business.

The Model X, Tesla's luxury SUV that debuted in 2015, has not been a hit with critics or customers.

"It's an incredible vehicle," he said about the Model X. "Probably nothing like it will ever be made again, and maybe it shouldn't."

Model Y will be built on the same platform as the Model 3 and share more than 75% of its parts. That should hold down the cost and time to start production, Musk said.

According to CNN, Musk has a history of over-promising and under-delivering on vehicle production. Problems plagued its Model 3 sedan, the company's first mass market effort. It spent much of 2018 trying to get Model 3 production working.

But three years after it debuted the Model 3 with the promise to make it available for $35,000, Tesla has still yet to make a version of the car for that mass-market price.