Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has confirmed the Model Y crossover won’t be produced at the brand’s factory in Fremont, California.
While fielding questions during an earnings call about Tesla’s quarterly results, Musk denied a recent report indicated that production of the Model Y would commence in November 2019.
“The Reuters report is based on nothing. We will not be starting production of Model Y next year. I would say it’s probably closer to 24 months from now… [early] 2020 is a more likely prospect,” he said.
As for the question of where the Model Y will be made, Musk said its Fremont plant won’t handle production as it is already “jammed to the gills” and “crazy packed”, Automotive News reports.
In fact, Tesla has yet to decide on a location to build the Model Y but did say that future battery Gigafactories, including at least one in China, will incorporate vehicle production.
Musk went on to assert that “Model Y is going to be a manufacturing revolution” and admitted that the automaker has relied too heavily on automation in the past.
“There are some things that are very well suited to manual operation and some things that are very well suited to automated operation, and the two should not be confused.
“We did go too far on the automation front and automated some pretty silly things,” he confirmed.