Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk says the first deliveries of the 7-seater electric Model Y will “probably” start early in the last quarter of 2020 – a full three months ahead of schedule.
Although the Model Y – even in its 5-seater form – is not yet available in Australia, US customers will soon be able to choose the 7-seater option which promises to deliver more choice for larger families wanting to make the switch to zero emissions transport.
Deliveries for the Model Y – which has drawn huge praise from auto engineer Sandy Munro – began in the US in March, but so far only the 5-seater option has been available to US customers.
Now, Musk has confirmed to the founder of Tesla blog Tesmanian that Tesla will likely begin deliveries of the 7-seater Model Y in October.
Probably early Q4
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2020
This is at least three months ahead of schedule; Tesla states on its website in all regions where the Model Y is available that the 7-seater interior option will be available in 2021 and does not allow buyers to select the option although it is visible.
With the 7-seater option, the Model Y costs an extra $US3,000 ($A4,380) on top of its base price ($US52,990 – $A77,383 converted – for the Long Range and $US60,990 – $A89,066 converted – for the Performance variant).
This third row of seats is placed between the rear wheel wells, and though at the Model Y unveil in Match 2019, a cutaway vision of the 7-seater Model Y interior showed the third row, it was with interest that we noted images of the third row in real life made their way onto social forum Reddit in September 2019.
According to notes made by the poster of the images, the third row is fixed and for extra leg room, the second row may be moved forwards to accommodate extra passengers.
News that first 7-seater Model Ys will commence deliveries in October follows the lead of the first Model Y, which was originally scheduled for a northern hemisphere summer release but that Tesla was able to bring to market at the end of the first quarter of 2020.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.