The Tesla Model 3 isn’t even on the showroom floor yet, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk is already firing up the hype machine for his electric car company’s next vehicle, the Tesla Model Y.
During an annual shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday, Musk released the first promotional image of the mysterious Tesla Model Y, depicting the shadowy outline of a low-slung SUV. The picture is a classic example of Tesla marketing, prodding users’ imaginations toward the general shape of the car without really giving anything away of what it looks like. Musk says the Model Y will “hit the roads” sometime in 2019, but with the Model 3 fast approaching and the Tesla semi truck on the horizon, the Model Y hasn’t gotten a lot of ink.
Here’s the initial picture that appeared behind Musk during his presentation to the shareholders.
Yep, looks like a Tesla all right.
First, to clear some things up: the sleek digital rendering barely depicts more than some Tesla-style body lines and a windshield, so obsessing over every detail is a bit of a fool’s errand here. Take wing mirrors, for example: The Guardian reports that “Tesla’s new Model Y electric SUV teaser image sparked controversy over its wing mirror-free appearance,” which, like, come on. Almost every state legally requires drivers to have at least two working mirrors visible to the driver, and unless Elon’s banking his design on a shift to cameras/ internal displays or something in the next two years, the Model Y is going to have some dang wing mirrors. It just looks cleaner without them for a promo image — who knows, maybe they’ll fold in flush with the car or something.
Take the Tesla Semi promo image, for example: no wing mirrors.
Ooh, mysterious, look at the big shadowy truck.
But the Tesla Semi is a dang semi truck, you can bet it’s going to have mirrors. It’s probably just whichever designer Tesla assigns to do the promo images, or it could be an indicator of how far along into the concept/ prototype design phase the company is.
Regardless, the Model Y image follows the same guidelines as most of Tesla’s other hype. Blacked out car against a dark background, some smooth impressive lines conveyed with shadowing work. Here’s a Model 3 teaser image, for example.
Holy CRAP. Wing mirrors.
This has even less detail than the Model Y image, to be fair, although it does have wing mirrors. Before that Tesla took a slightly different angle for its Model X teasers:
You get some more hood lines on this one.
You get the picture, now — in a few months, we might get a better look at the Model Y, but for now, all we get is a silhouette. However, Musk sorta heavily hinted that the upcoming Tesla Semi reveal at the end of September this fall could have some other big news.
““I really recommend showing up for the semi truck unveiling,” he hinted during the shareholder meeting. “Maybe there’s a little more than we’re saying here.”
One prediction? The Model Y has… wing mirrors.
