New Model Y variants are coming later this year, Tesla exec says
With the release of the latest Model Y, Tesla has iteratively improved an already great EV that will surely capture the attention of new car buyers. If this sounds like you, there are compelling reasons to reconsider your new car purchase.
In an interview with Jay Leno, Lars Moravy, Tesla's Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, stated that the Model Y variants most buyers are interested in will be released later this year.Tesla often introduces new products with a 'Launch Edition,' which typically features unique upgrades and options exclusive to the first 1,000 or so vehicles off the production line. The new Model Y's Launch Edition costs $59,990, which is $4,000 more than a similarly equipped Long Range All-Wheel Drive model.
'We're starting with the Launch edition,' Moravy says, adding, 'All the other variants - the Dual-Motor base edition, Rear-Wheel Drive, Performance, seven-seater options - those will come later in the year.'
The Launch Edition Model Y has Tesla's 'reimagined' interior and exterior, as well as Autopilot, otherwise known as 'Full Self-Driving (Supervised).'We know what's new on the Tesla Model Y in broad strokes, but the interview does give us a few other tidbits of info, too.
According to Franz Von Holzhausen, Tesla's head of design, the interior will be made of new synthetic leather that is "easy to clean." Elsewhere in the interior, the wireless charger now supports two phones, and there's a button in the trunk area to automatically raise folded-down rear seats. The newly-ventilated front seats also automatically adjust when the rear seats are folded down.
Tesla brought back the turn signal indicator stalk and added more speakers, with the Launch Edition featuring a whopping 16 of them. The cabin also features a radar that 'classifies' occupants by size, height, and weight and reads their heartbeat to adjust safety systems accordingly. Rear-seat passengers can also pair their phones to the rear-seat screen for a unique experience.
New laminated glass reduces noise in the cabin, and the roof glass now rejects 25 to 30 percent more heat to keep the cabin cooler. We also learned that the front lightbar is not associated with the headlights, which sit below it, and the new hands-free trunk can open as you approach.The new Model Y is also more powerful than the outgoing model, with an output of 455 horsepower and 430 pounds-feet of torque, compared to the current dual-motor Model Y's 410 horsepower.
Range estimates for the new Model Y are now 327 miles when fully charged. This change was quietly made to the Tesla Model Y landing page earlier this week, though it's unclear how the increase came to be. The range for the similarly specced 'old' Long Range All-Wheel Drive is listed at 311 miles.
Tesla hasn't said what pricing will be for the new Model Y, and it's not worth speculating on it by triangulating pricing in other markets, like China. Pricing stateside is typically higher than other markets and isn't typically correlative.
If the Launch Edition is any indication, we expect pricing to jump a few thousand dollars per version. Whether or not the changes above are worth that price increase is ultimately up to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
38 minutes ago
- CNBC
Goldman's advice on playing autonomous vehicles as catalysts approach this year
With the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry poised to grow in coming years, several stocks could be a way to play the trend, according to Goldman Sachs. "Autonomous vehicles have arrived for both rideshare and trucking," analyst Mark Delaney wrote in a note on Monday. "The key focus for investors is now on the pace at which AVs will grow and how big the market will become, rather than if the technology works." Delaney estimates that the U.S. rideshare market filled by AVs will hit $7 billion in 2030, equating to 8% of the total market. The analyst noted that there are already more than 1,500 robotaxis on the road from Waymo, a division of Google-parent Alphabet . Commercial operations may expand to seven cities by the end of 2026, up from four today, in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, Texas. "With this roll out from Waymo, coupled with planned launches from others including Tesla and Zoox, we expect over [1,800] commercial autonomous vehicles in the U.S. by the end of 2025 and [35,000] in 2030," the analyst also wrote, adding that AV scaling is being driven by safety and falling costs. Risks overdone Against this rapid growth forecast, Delaney said investors should keep an eye on both stocks that could benefit as well as buy-rated companies where investor concerns about risks from AVs could be overdone. Here are some of the stocks that Goldman highlighted. Tesla is one standout in anticipation of it debuting its robotaxi service in Austin later this month. CEO Elon Musk told CNBC's David Faber in May that Tesla plans to start serving the Texas state capital with 10 vehicles, eventually expanding to thousands if the launch is successful. "We believe the degree to which Tesla can have differentiated scale and technology will be key for its long-term profitability in the robotaxi business," Delaney wrote. "We expect Tesla to meet its objective to start AV operations this summer in Austin, although we also believe that Tesla's use of certain tools (including geofencing and local specific parameters) as well as a need to validate/improve on the technology for wider unsupervised use will limit how fast Tesla can scale its AVs in the near-term." Delaney is neutral on Tesla stock, saying he has a more "moderate" outlook for the company's profits than Tesla's own forward guidance. Still, he believes Tesla's earnings can improve in the medium- to longer-term as a result of full self-driving (FSD) and AV technology. TE Connectivity could also benefit from AV growth, Delaney said, adding that the company that enables the transfer of data, power and signals "has incremental content opportunities tied to the high speed data connectivity that is needed for partly and fully autonomous vehicles." "We believe that connectors for data connectivity make up about 10% of the total connector value per vehicle, and represent an attractive growth opportunity," Delaney wrote. Delaney has a buy rating on the stock, while his $184 price target implies more than 13% upside from Friday's close of $166. Shares have already surged almost 14% this year, far outpacing the broader market, and pay a dividend yield of 1.75%. A bright future notwithstanding, Delaney said AV ridesharing is still in its "very early days," leaving concerns surrounding AV risk to companies like Lyft potentially overblown and, in any case, "more than already discounted" in the stock. In fact, Delaney expects that AV operators and fleet owners will "continue to enter into partnerships in the coming years" and that Lyft could play a role in the broader hybrid and AV ecosystem by generating demand and managing vehicle fleets, for example. Delaney has a buy rating on Lyft, and his $20 price target implies more than 35% upside from Friday's close. Lyft his soared 31% in the past three months, and is 14% higher so far in 2025.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Lucid Group Stock: Analysts Fear This 1 Problem Is "More Consequential" Than Investors Think
The EV maker's sales are expected to explode in the coming year. But analysts fear that Lucid Group will face financing troubles. Significantly more funding will be needed in the period ahead. 10 stocks we like better than Lucid Group › Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) stock has tremendous long-term growth potential. Its market capitalization right now is under $7 billion -- less than 1% the size of Tesla. This year, sales are expected to grow by 78%. Next year, another 96% sales growth is expected. There's only one problem. According to analysts from Bank of America, there is one emerging risk that is "more consequential" than the market realizes. It's possible that this risk could eventually sink the entire business. After reporting a $397 million fourth-quarter loss this February, Lucid revealed that its longtime CEO, Peter Rawlinson, would be stepping down. It was a surprise to most investors. Rawlinson's comments made the move seem less abrupt than it appeared from an outside perspective, but his absence from the quarterly conference call drew uncertainty. After leading the electric vehicle (EV) maker for 12 years, overseeing the launch of both its Air sedan and Gravity SUV, he simply stated that it was time to move on. "Now that we have successfully launched the Lucid Gravity, I have decided it is finally the right time for me to step aside from my roles at Lucid," Rawlinson explained. Regardless of why Rawlinson stepped aside, many analysts weren't pleased. "We think the departure of Lucid's founder, CEO, and CTO, Peter Rawlinson is much more consequential than understood by the market," Bank of America analyst John Murphy explained after downgrading the stock to underperform. "We now expect product development to stall, consumer demand to be dampened, and anticipate additional funding opportunities could be put at risk." Access to funding is the most critical risk for Lucid. The company now has less than $1.9 billion in cash on the books, yet it posted a $2.4 billion loss over the last 12 months. The company already raised $1.75 billion in late 2024 despite a weak share price, and its shares outstanding have jumped by roughly 30% over the past six months. All in all, Lucid has been racing to raise cash. Yet its cash burn remains very high, share dilution is accelerating, and its share price remains in the dumps, limiting its ability to self-finance without massively diluting shareholders. If capital access is further restrained, as Bank of America believes could happen, the situation could quickly become dire. But could Lucid really go bankrupt over the next 12 months? Like most early stage EV companies, Lucid has been losing money for its entire operating history. It's very expensive to design, build, and scale a capital-intensive business like this. Only until critical scale is achieved, largely through the release of affordable mass market vehicles, do profit margins typically turn positive. Fortunately, Lucid is on the cusp of releasing three new mass market vehicles. Management recently reaffirmed that the first of these should begin production in late 2026, though these timelines are often pushed out. Meanwhile, rapid sales growth from its recently introduced Gravity platform should provide investors with additional confidence. But there's no doubt that time is limited. Some analysts have lost faith in the company, and positive profit margins are still likely years away, leaving the business dependent on outside funding to survive. While it's a very rough estimate, Lucid currently needs around $500 million in cash per quarter to stay afloat. Its current cash pile, plus additional stock sales, should give it at least another year. However, significantly more funding will be needed to get its mass market vehicles into production. That'll likely require sizable share dilution. So while the company may survive, there's no guarantee that long-term investors will benefit. Before you buy stock in Lucid Group, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Lucid Group wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,702!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $870,207!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 988% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Ryan Vanzo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bank of America and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Lucid Group Stock: Analysts Fear This 1 Problem Is "More Consequential" Than Investors Think was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
After Trump-Musk feud, here's the next issue for Tesla stock
The public name-calling between Elon Musk and President Trump may be over (for now), but the debate around Tesla's (TSLA) stock is only set to heat up as investors digest the upcoming robotaxi launch and likely another weak quarterly report in late July or early August. As one would expect, the very public spat that erupted between Musk and Trump has sent shares of the EV maker on a wild ride. Tesla shares are off by 8% (and a lot more at the height of the sparring session) in June versus a 2% gain for the S&P 500 (^GSPC) as investors fear Trump will take aim at Musk's various lines of business. That's even if the president has cooled his rhetoric on Musk — the president isn't one to forget digs, ever. Musk being out of Trump's inner circle also runs counter to the bull thesis of Tesla's stock following the November election. Remember, Musk being the "first buddy" was supposed to lead to millions of Tesla's driverless cars on the roads and the extension of the Biden administration's EV tax credit, among other pie-in-the-sky predictions that swirled. Good luck with that now, Tesla bulls. But the dustup between the two powerbrokers brings to light a major problem for Tesla's stock as Musk tries to jump-start a sagging EV business by again sleeping inside a factory. There is a BIGLY disconnect between Tesla's valuation and what's happening underneath the surface. For example, Tesla's stock is up 12% since October 2022, but consensus EPS estimates for 2025, 2026, and 2027 have since plunged 77%, 70%, and 71%, respectively, according to new research from JPMorgan auto analyst Ryan Brinkman. You can study Tesla's EPS estimate trends for yourself on the Yahoo Finance platform. The stock is valued at a significant premium to the broader market despite EV tax credits likely going away. Tesla's forward price-to-earnings multiple stands at an eye-popping 166 times compared to 22 times for the S&P 500. Podcast: Why Qualcomm's CEO is pushing hard into the auto market No clue how one can reasonably justify that, given Tesla's weaker fundamentals and as it's heading into at least two years of heavy investment to support robot building and robotaxi operations. The EV tax credit has been a driver of Tesla's sales and profits. EV subsidies represent about 52% of Tesla's current profits, Brinkman estimates. Trump's "big, beautiful bill" that removes the EV tax credit could wipe out these profits for Tesla. Brinkman expects financial estimates to drop in the near term as the impact of the EV subsidy removal becomes clearer. He pointed out that there has been no uplift to medium-term outlooks like sales or earnings due to Musk's Trump connection. Therefore, the post-election Tesla stock rally was "some combination of 'animal spirits', 'speculative fervor', and 'irrational exuberance' allowing for greater investor entertaining of very long-dated bull theses which in our estimation are unlikely to hold up medium-term against the weight of higher-for-longer interest rates and any eventual risk-off shift in the market eliciting sector and thematic rotation," Brinkman said. At some point, the stock has to correct for these elements to the story. Is this finally the moment? I would say this: An electric car eventually runs out of a charge, right? Before you go... Assessing the economy from the beach: By the time you read this, I will have touched down in France for this year's Cannes Lions advertising and media festival. It's an interesting, hot as hell, seriously crowded event that serves up a good pulse on all things advertising and media. But the past few years, it has morphed into more of a CEO and sports celeb scene — making it fertile ground to get clues on the economy, markets, and future investing trends. I have a ton of interviews on tap with market-movers and other fascinating folks, so be sure to stay tuned to Yahoo Finance Monday to Friday. The time is coming: Yahoo Finance's annual Invest conference in November will be here before you know it. New this year is an exclusive dinner the day before the conference for investors, followed by two investor education rooms the next day (along with tons of in-depth interviews). Register for Invest 2025 here. Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email Sign in to access your portfolio
