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Tesla’s Elon Musk details Model Y manufacturing improvements, insight on design
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently revealed improvements the all-electric car maker has made to its production process for the Model Y crossover SUV. In an interview on Ride the Lightning podcast, hosted by Ryan McCaffrey, Musk discussed lessons learned from Tesla’s prior transition from the Model S to the Model X as applicable to the Model Y, as well as decisions made from the vehicle’s outgrowth of the Model 3. He additionally provided some insight on the design decisions behind the Model 3, which also carry over to the Model Y’s design.
Musk and McCaffrey’s discussion about the Model Y production process began with the question, “What are the biggest lessons learned from the Model 3 program that you’re applying to the Model Y?” However, Musk indicated that a more relative learning comparison came from Tesla’s design of the Model X and its departure from the Model S.
“The Model X ended up being a radical departure from the S…with the Model Y, we wanted to avoid the technology bandwagon we had with the X. It should have been easy going from S to X, but instead, it was hell because of so many new technologies…It would be too risky to the company to do that with the Y,” Musk explained.
I'm celebrating episode 200 of Ride the Lightning, my weekly @Tesla podcast, in THE BEST way possible: a 1-hour interview with @elonmusk himself! 🥳 I can't wait to share our conversation with all of you! It airs this Sunday, June 2 @ 9am ET/6am PT on major podcast services. 🚗⚡️ pic.twitter.com/V0nFrU03Ir
— Ryan McCaffrey (@DMC_Ryan) May 30, 2019
The Model Y crossover needed to address the flexibility expected of vehicles in its class such as cargo capacity, seating for 6 or 7 people, and more ride height than a sedan. Tesla addressed these features while also keeping in mind the effect on battery range a larger vehicle might have, according to Musk.
“We tried to make the car as similar to the [Model 3] as possible except in the case where a change was necessary to achieve SUV functionality…[all] while still having a low drag coefficient and not increasing the frontal area too much,” he detailed. Overall, Musk concluded that CdA (automobile drag coefficient) and mass of the Model Y only affect 8-10% of the battery range when compared to the Model 3.
The design of Tesla’s Model Y and lessons learned from Model 3 production also led to some manufacturing improvements for the electric crossover. Musk detailed how the Model Y underbody was switched to aluminum casting instead of stamped steel and aluminum pieces, which greatly simplifies the moving parts involved in making the vehicle.
This change effectively means that initially, using two castings to make the structure will take the process from 70 parts to 4 (castings plus joiners), and once the “big” casting machine comes into operation, the process will have brought the process from 70 parts to 1 (casting only). Using casting over stamping reduces the weight of the Model Y, improves MHB (heat produced), lowers cost due to the smaller number of parts necessary, and significantly drops capital expenditure on robots.
As for the manufacturing location of the Model Y, Musk said the decision was not quite final, but the default place was Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, with the runner-up being Gigafactory 1 in Sparks, Nevada. Producing the Model Y in Fremont would be the fastest way to bring the crossover SUV into production, according to Musk. “One choice isn’t natural over other,” he said. Freemont is producing the Model 3 and the two vehicles share 75% of their components, but Gigafactory 1’s location has a lower cost of living, meaning an overall better value for Tesla.
The similarities between the Model Y and Model 3 being what they are, Musk also discussed with McCaffrey some of the design decisions that initially went into creating the Model 3. In response to the question, “What’s the toughest design decision you had to make on Model 3?”, the CEO cited two primary factors that went into the midsize sedan’s creation: the touchscreen and the nose design.
Reducing the number of screens from two in the Model S to one in the Model 3 came with some pushback, Musk explained. However, he felt that owners would prefer an open view of the road, and everything needed while driving could be fit onto one screen.
This background brought up community rumors about a heads-up display (HUD) being included in Tesla’s vehicles. On the subject, Musk set the record straight – there was never any plan to include a HUD, nor will one be added in the future. He simply doesn’t like them, and the move to self-driving makes them pointless. “We discussed it, but I’ve tried various heads up displays and found they were annoying,” he said. “We felt the car would increasingly go to self-driving…As things are approaching autonomy, why project things you don’t even care about on the screen?”
Something that customers do care about, though, is the look of their car. Musk detailed the difficulties in making an attractive design for the Model 3, which wasn’t easy thanks to the lack of a front grill on the vehicle. “You don’t want to have the nose to look like Voldemort…You’ve got to get some character or it does not look good.”
Also mentioned was the decision to reduce the width of the Model 3 to 185 cm over the 195 cm of the Model S to help sell more cars in Japan. The country’s parking machines only accept cars up to 195.4 cm wide, which leaves very little wiggle room in the manufacturing process to meet. The change to 185 cm meant that any Tesla Model 3 could fit in any parking garage in Japan.
The Model Y is set to begin production in 2020, and reservations are currently open on Tesla’s website.
Listen to McCaffrey’s full Ride the Lightning podcast interview here.
The Tesla Model Y L is arguably the most hyped trim of the all-electric crossover, other than the Performance configuration that comes with white-knuckle speed and sports car-level handling.
However, it is not all perfect. Tesla owners in China who took delivery of the Model Y L, denoted with an L to highlight its longer wheelbase, are experiencing what they are referring to as “collapsing” of the rear wheels, as suspension issues appear to be an issue with some of the builds.
🚨 Model Y L owners in China report rear suspension sag
• Six-seat long-wheelbase Y. Shanghai. On sale since August 2025
• Owners say the rear tire-to-arch gap shrinks after mileage or a full load. Some cases after about 9,000 km loaded. Others near 30,000 km
• Tesla service… pic.twitter.com/Lr6i5Tbi07— Joe Hansen (@joehansen) September 1, 2026
The gap between the wheel arch and tire has narrowed to the point that “not even a single finger” could fit, according to a report from Car News China. The failures are not tied to a specific mileage, as one owner said that after just 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles), they noticed the suspension issue when their car was fully loaded.
Another one had the issue at 30,000 kilometers (18,640 miles) and noticed that the wheel gap shrank to two fingers, so not as drastic as the person who reported a similar issue at 9,000 km.
Tesla Model Y L is gaining momentum in China’s premium segment
Along with the visual recognition of the issue, others are saying the sagging is causing abnormal wear on the inside of the tires. Extra weight and instant torque already provide additional stress on the tires in electric vehicles during normal operation, so it is no surprise that this is another complaint.
There has been no recall issued by Tesla, and the company has not yet publicly acknowledged the issue.
Some are suggesting that owners use a “finger test” to self-diagnose whether there is an issue with the suspension. There should be four fingers between the tire and the wheel well; anything less than that starts to get dicey.
Tesla is starting to truly tease and hype its groundbreaking Cybercab event, which takes place tomorrow in Austin, Texas. It will be the first time members of the public will be able to ride in a Cybercab, a vehicle without any manual controls, on public roads.
Tesla has been dropping some hype on X over the past several days, but this morning, the excitement has truly started to build up for the event. Although Cybercab has been unveiled before, this is truly Tesla’s announcement that it is ready to start offering autonomous rides for public passengers in its new ride-hailing-geared vehicle for the first time.
The hype has started with a variety of different social media posts that are a true indication that Tesla is preparing for something big. Teasing so much of the potential of Cybercab, including its ability to truly revolutionize how people hail rides for local travel, is what the big idea for the event entails. The time that many Tesla owners, fans, and investors have been waiting for is potentially here:
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 2, 2026
The event has remained slim on details. Even invitees are still awaiting true details about what the event will entail, where they’ll go, and what is in store for the evening. This is pretty typical for an event run by Tesla; they keep things under wraps for the most part until the very last minute.
However, there is no secret about what the real intention of Tesla is for this event: it is going to be a huge reveal party for a vehicle that has no steering wheel and no pedals. It is a truly massive step for the company moving forward.
No steering wheel, no pedals
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) September 2, 2026
Speculation persists as to whether this is going to be an event that simply announces that rides will begin with the Cybercab, or it will be something more substantial. Tesla has said in the past that they plan to sell the Cybercab to the general public in what could become a great way to earn passive income by adding it to a more global fleet of Robotaxi-geared vehicles.
Tomorrow, the show begins in Austin, and the Cybercab goes live at some capacity; we just don’t know exactly how quite yet.
News
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
SpaceX filed with the FCC for Starship Flight 14, its first true orbital launch attempt.
SpaceX has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to fly Starlink terminals during Starship’s fourteenth flight test, and the filing lays out a genuine trip to orbit, something the program has never attempted.
Every Starship flight so far, including Flight 13’s successful splashdown in the Indian Ocean on July 24, has flown a suborbital arc that ends with the ship reentering the atmosphere within the same hour it launches. The FCC paperwork describes a mission profile built around an actual orbital insertion instead.
The payload is the other half of the story. Flight 13 carried 20 production Starlink V3 satellites, but because that mission never reached orbit, the satellites reentered along with the ship rather than joining the constellation, something Teslarati covered in detail after SpaceX released footage shot from one of those satellites as it drifted away from Starship in space. Flight 14 is designed to close that gap. If the orbital insertion holds, the roughly 20 V3 satellites onboard would separate into an operational orbit and could eventually go into service, each one rated for about 1 terabit per second of downlink capacity by SpaceX’s own account.
SpaceX announces new Starbase for ‘thousands of Starship launches annually’
Elon Musk first flagged the orbital attempt during SpaceX’s August 4 earnings call, the company’s first as a public entity following its June IPO under the ticker SPCX. He also floated catching the ship with the Starbase tower on the same flight, an idea he walked back on August 20, saying the catch attempt would more likely come “in a few months,” as Teslarati reported at the time. Flight 14 will instead target a splashdown for the ship in the Indian Ocean, the same recovery method used since Flight 12.
Hardware has been catching up to the ambition. Booster 21 completed a full 33-engine static fire on August 28, and Ship 41 finished its own six-engine test the week before. An airspace briefing circulated to pilots on August 20 listed September 15 as the target date, later than the end of August window Musk mentioned on the earnings call, though SpaceX has not confirmed a launch date publicly and Starship schedules routinely slip while hardware and FAA paperwork line up.
The FCC filing itself does not guarantee a launch date. It covers communications authority, and not flight readiness, considering SpaceX still needs Ship 41 fully stacked and cleared by the FAA before Flight 14 can fly. But the filing is a real marker of intent and it puts a specific regulatory process behind what had so far only been Musk’s word on the earnings call.
Tesla Model Y L gets suspension complaints in over odd issue China
Tesla Cybercab event gains steam ahead of massive launch
