What Tesla has in store for 2017: Model Trio, Model Y, Solar Roof and more

Tesla CEO Elon Musk exposed his vision of the future through the company’s Master Plan Part Deux on July 20, 2016. Packed with predictions about his complicated and detailed plan to marry self-driving electrified vehicles covering all segments, with solar rooftops and integrated battery storage units, two thousand seventeen should be the year when many of them begin to come into concentrate in a way the public can visualize.

Tesla Model three Deliveries

Arguably the most anticipated product on Tesla’s roadmap is its affordable mass market Model three mid-size sedan which will see very first deliveries take place at the end of 2017. The car has been in “pencils down mode” since summer, meaning the final design has been locked in and the process of getting it ready for production has begun. Elon has hinted that plans call for a volume production date that would begin sometime near the summer of 2017.

Goals should always exceed one’s seize and Musk recognizes that embarking volume production on Model three by the end of July is going to be next to unlikely. He was chastened a bit by the roll out of the Model X, which began in September, 2015. A number of production glitches delayed utter production of that car until well into the 2nd quarter of 2016.

That practice tempered Elon’s irrepressible optimism with a dose of real world practice. Even assuming production did begin next summer, it would result in relatively few cars being produced. Those would get into the mitts of customers living near the factory in Fremont, California so that any post-production issues can be addressed quickly and efficiently. The lessons learned would then be used to improve the quality of the cars to come.

Machines That Builds Machines, Come to Life

A main area of concentrate for Musk and Tesla’s production arm is devising ways to reap significant benefits from a total rethinking of the manufacturing process by “building the machine that builds the machine”. Having recently acquired a leading engineering stiff in Germany focused on building advanced automation devices, Tesla believes that a decently designed factory could operate at five to ten times the speed of today’s production facilities.

Drone movie of Tesla’s Gigafactory shows the battery factory more than doubling in size

“Tesla engineering has transitioned to concentrate strongly on designing the machine that makes the machine – turning the factory itself into a product. A very first principles physics analysis of automotive production suggests that somewhere inbetween a five to ten fold improvement is achievable by version three on a harshly two year iteration cycle.”, said Musk at the Tesla Gigafactory Grand Opening celebration.

Plans to almost dual the size of Tesla’s Fremont, Calif. factory were recently approved by the city. Tesla plans to build as many as 500,000 cars a year, most of them Model 3s, by the end of 2018.

Tesla Model Y Compact SUV and Tesla Pickup Truck Unveiling

An electrical compact SUV based on the Model three chassis, dubbed Model Y, will round out Tesla’s S-E-X-Y range of vehicles. That, along with a Tesla pickup and a Tesla ‘minibus’, will fulfill the major automotive segments the Silicon Valley automaker and energy company aims to cover with its upcoming fleet of electrified cars. Expect prototypes to be unveiled sometime in 2017

“In addition to consumer vehicles, there are two other types of electrified vehicle needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport. Both are in the early stages of development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year.”, reads Tesla’s blog post.

Tesla Model Y Compact SUV rendering [Source: RM Car Design]

@RoadandTrack @TeslaMotors Model Y (compact SUV) off Model three chassis. Tesla Bus/Minibus/Spacebus off Model X.

In addition, Tesla is thinking about creating a self driving minibus that could transport up to ten passengers, according to Musk’s Master Plan Part Deux. It would be based on the Model X chassis. Passengers could summon the bus to their location and it would supply them to their destination with little or no walking required – something traditional public transportation vehicles cannot do.

Tesla job openings expose that developments for future vehicles are already being planned for.

Roll Out of Autopilot Two.0 and Self-Driving Features

2017 is also the year when Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot should become fully operational. All cars produced after October nineteen are tooled with the hardware two package of cameras, radar, and advanced ultrasound sensors that will permit them to operate without human input. All that remains to be done is accumulate enough human logged driving miles to flush out the confidence level for the company’s self-driving algorithms.

Tesla has already accumulated more than 1.Two billion miles of driving history and is adding three million more miles every day. Elon believes it will require a total of six billion miles of driving practice before autonomous driving is reliable enough to persuade regulators to permit self-driving cars to be permitted on public roads. He is also aware that approval will vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, both within the United States and in other countries.

Tesla demonstrates the capabilities of a Total Self-Driving Model X

Musk plans to showcase a fully autonomous excursion from Los Angeles to Fresh York by the end of 2017. According to Musk, the cross country journey in a Utter Self-Driving Tesla would take place “without the need for a single touch” from a human driver, including recharging the car’s battery.

“Our purpose is, we’ll to be able to do a demonstration drive of total autonomy all the way from LA to Fresh York,” According to Musk, the tour would be “from home in LA, to ripping off you off in Times Square, and then the car will go park itself.”

Tesla Will Begin Solar Roof Sales

Now that SolarCity has officially become part of Tesla Motors, the Solar Roof products introduced in October will become available next year to customers via the US. Tesla is revamping its retail stores to include information about its solar products and the Powerwall Two, its latest residential energy storage product. Musk envisions a seamless, pain-free process that will permit solar customers to order a Solar Roof and all the details are treated entirely by Tesla.

Combining energy production with local energy storage will permit more homeowners to reduce their reliance on the local utility company, which will insulate them against future rate hikes. It will also mean fewer carbon emissions from generating electric current, reinforcing Musk’s objective of a sustainable future.

The Solar Roof will be suggested in four styles and the anticipated to go on sale during the summer of 2017, beginning with the most popular style very first. Other styles will become available at the rate of one extra style every three months.

Interested in solar? Get a solar cost estimate and find out how much a solar system would cost for your home or business.

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