Nobody can quite agree on what the Tesla Model Y is. Last night, at the grand unveiling of what’s set to be the fourth car in the automaker’s electric line-up,
Nobody can quite agree on what the Tesla Model Y is. Last night, at the grand unveiling of what’s set to be the fourth car in the automaker’s electric line-up, Tesla CEO Elon Musk referred to the Model Y as a “midsize SUV”; others, meanwhile, have argued that it’s actually a compact SUV.
Then there’s the “crossover” name, which first became truly popular with the launch of the Toyota RAV4 back in 1996. Being a crossover isn’t so much a matter of size, just to muddy the definition waters a little more. Instead, it’s about having the styling cues of an SUV, but being based on a passenger car platform underneath.
That, certainly, goes some way to describe the Model Y. After all, it’s clearly related to the Model 3, which is Tesla’s compact premium passenger car. The lingering question, though, is whether the Model Y is crossover enough.
What Tesla calls an SUV is not necessarily what everybody else refers to that way. The Model X – revealed in prototype form back in 2012, and in production from 2015 – is referred to by the company as an SUV. However there have been long-standing arguments that it’s a misnomer.
The Model X, so some would insist, is more like a smoothed-over minivan. The curvaceous body – as much a magnification of the Model S sedan, as the Model Y is an enlargement of the Model 3 – has borrowed the SUV nomenclature, critics say, simply because SUVs sell better than minivans do.
