What is the Tesla Model Y, the car with which it has made its much-awaited debut in India?

After years of courting and dithering, Elon Musk’s Tesla has finally made its much-awaited and touted entry into the Indian passenger vehicle market, with the inauguration of the Tesla dealership in Mumbai’s upmarket Bandra Kurla Complex by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. While Tesla has no ambitions to manufacture cars in India, it will soon inaugurate another showroom in either Delhi or Gurugram.

Tesla has opened bookings for its mid-size electric SUV, the Model Y. It will be offered with two options, the standard rear-wheel drive with a range of 500 kilometres, and a long-range, rear-wheel drive variant with a range of 622 kilometres. The rear-wheel drive Tesla Model Y is priced at ₹59,89,000 (ex-showroom, Mumbai) and the long-range variant is priced at ₹67,89,000 (ex-showroom, Mumbai). For an additional ₹6 lakh, the vehicles will also be equipped with Tesla’s proprietary Full Self-Driving technology—autonomous driving with minimum intervention—in the future. Currently, FSD is available in the U.S., Canada, China, Mexico and Puerto Rico. 

In 2013, Tesla had trademarked the name “Model Y.” Until 2019, it was widely expected that the Model Y would have the Falcon-wing doors like the Model 3, especially when Musk shared teaser images of the Model Y with the Model 3-like wings. However, problems in the production of Tesla Model Y led to its production being postponed till 2020.  

This was also the time when Tesla was grappling with ramping up production. 2018 was, as described by biographer Walter Isaacson, the most agonising year of Musk’s life. The Model Y is the crossover version of the Model 3, and according to Isaacson, Musk was talked out of a more radical and unconventional design for the vehicle. Playing it safe with the Model Y is what triggered Musk to adopt a more radical design for the pickup truck. “Let’s be bold,” he is quoted as saying. “Let’s surprise people.” Musk’s conviction culminated in the launch of the Tesla Cybertruck. 

The Model Y began production in 2020, in Tesla’s Fremont factory in California and the Gigafactory near Austin in Texas. The Model Y is also produced at the Gigafactory in Shanghai and the Gigafactory in Berlin-Brandenburg in Germany. In 2023, JATO Dynamics identified the Model Y as the best-selling vehicle in the world, making it the first electric vehicle to achieve this feat.  

The Model Y also became the first Tesla electric vehicle to be onboarded in Tesla Robotaxi, Tesla’s FSD-powered ride-hailing service. It is currently operational in Austin and is geofenced for a distance of 42 square kilometres, which is larger than competitor Waymo’s. For the San Francisco Bay area, Musk said the rollout could happen “within a month or two” once regulatory approvals are obtained. Currently, Tesla holds only two of the six permits needed for fully driverless, commercial robotaxi service in California.

Sales of the Tesla Model Y totalled 1.22 million units globally, up by 64% from 2022, or 480,000 more units than 2021—a result achieved by no other manufacturer before. Consequently, the Model Y managed to outsell traditional global top-sellers, such as Toyota’s RAV4 and Corolla sedan. “Tesla is a brand made for the developed world. While it cannot currently target these markets, there is potential for emerging markets to be explored as an additional source of growth in the future,” said Felipe Munoz, senior analyst at JATO Dynamics. 

In June this year, the Model Y also became the first vehicle to perform an “autonomous delivery”, according to Musk, from the Gigafactory in Texas to the customer’s house, roughly 15 miles. The delivery took 30 minutes, during which the car reached a top speed of 116 kilometres per hour, and a day ahead of its scheduled date. The company had equipped the vehicle with the same software that is used in Tesla’s robotaxis, but upon completion of the delivery, Tesla had downgraded it to the commercially available FSD.