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Tesla is on a roll with opening new production facilities in Europe and the U.S. and we know the focus is on Model Y production, at least for now. We also know that the Model Y produced at Giga Austin in the U.S., as well as the one made in Germany, will be slightly different from what we currently have on the market today. This is all but confirmed by the EPA listing of a mysterious Tesla Model Y AWD.
Having several variations of the same model with different characteristics might be confusing for customers, but hopefully, Tesla will differentiate its models. This indeed appears to be the case, making it easier for people to choose between the different types of Model Y available to U.S. customers once the Giga Austin starts flooding the market with cars.
A mysterious new Tesla Model Y variant appeared on EPA’s list, and it is called Model Y AWD, without the Long Range suffix. The new model has similar consumption figures to the Model Y AWD Long Range, but with 15% less range. This points to a smaller battery capacity and it got us wondering what it means.
According to the EPA listing, we see the new Model Y AWD variant has a 123 MPGe combined consumption, very close to the 122 MPGe of the Model Y AWD Long Range. The total range is listed at 279 miles (449 km). This is higher than the 244 miles (393 km) of the ghost RWD version but lower than the 330 miles (531 km) of the AWD Long Range variant or the 303 miles (488 km) of the Performance trim. This would make it the new entry-level Model Y, although no Model Y AWD is yet listed on Tesla’s website.
This could indicate that Tesla will introduce an LFP battery on the Model Y, exactly how it did with the Model 3 a while back. After all, the times are hard, and the price of nickel has reached stratospheric levels, so the switch to nickel-less chemistries makes sense. Tesla already has experience working with the LFP batteries, so this should not be a problem. And the drop in range (-15.5% combined) matches the one of the Model 3 after it switched to LFP batteries.
On the other hand, it could very well be just a placeholder in the EPA list, just like the Model Y RWD is right now. The variant was dismissed by Elon Musk a year ago because of the “insufficient range”, only to reappear on the EPA list last December. Despite that, no actual Tesla Model Y RWD was available to order, at least until now. We’ll have to wait and see, but we’d love to read your thoughts on this one, in the comments section below.
A mysterious new Tesla Model Y variant appeared on EPA’s list, and it is called Model Y AWD, without the Long Range suffix. The new model has similar consumption figures to the Model Y AWD Long Range, but with 15% less range. This points to a smaller battery capacity and it got us wondering what it means.
According to the EPA listing, we see the new Model Y AWD variant has a 123 MPGe combined consumption, very close to the 122 MPGe of the Model Y AWD Long Range. The total range is listed at 279 miles (449 km). This is higher than the 244 miles (393 km) of the ghost RWD version but lower than the 330 miles (531 km) of the AWD Long Range variant or the 303 miles (488 km) of the Performance trim. This would make it the new entry-level Model Y, although no Model Y AWD is yet listed on Tesla’s website.
This could indicate that Tesla will introduce an LFP battery on the Model Y, exactly how it did with the Model 3 a while back. After all, the times are hard, and the price of nickel has reached stratospheric levels, so the switch to nickel-less chemistries makes sense. Tesla already has experience working with the LFP batteries, so this should not be a problem. And the drop in range (-15.5% combined) matches the one of the Model 3 after it switched to LFP batteries.
On the other hand, it could very well be just a placeholder in the EPA list, just like the Model Y RWD is right now. The variant was dismissed by Elon Musk a year ago because of the “insufficient range”, only to reappear on the EPA list last December. Despite that, no actual Tesla Model Y RWD was available to order, at least until now. We’ll have to wait and see, but we’d love to read your thoughts on this one, in the comments section below.
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