Tesla’s Model Y crossover vehicle will arrive earlier than expected thanks to the company’s executive team’s ability to walk CEO Elon Musk – in his own words – “back from the cliff of insanity.”
Most of the Model Y details remain a mystery, but Musk said earlier this year that the vehicle would be based on an entirely new platform that would kill the 12-volt battery architecture used on all other Tesla vehicles. The new platform would streamline electrical wiring during production, helping speed the manufacturing process.
Now the Model Y will be based on Tesla’s Model 3 platform, Musk said on Wednesday’s earnings call.
“Upon the council of my executive team to reel me back from the cliffs of insanity, the Model Y will, in fact, be using substantial carry over from Model 3 in order to bring it to market faster,” Musk said.
He later said, “I have to thank my executive team for stopping me from being a fool. Model Y will have relatively low technical and production risk as a result.”
A platform overhaul remains in the pipeline, though.
“I still think we want to do the crazy thing in the future,” Musk said. “But we will want to punt that until after the compact SUV.”
The Model Y has previously been pegged as a 2020 release. A teaser photo (above) was released by Tesla in June.