During a company earnings call earlier this week, Tesla announced two big pieces of news. The first is that the company's compact crossover, the Model Y, is now in production, with deliveries to start very soon. The second is that the automaker posted a profit in the last quarter of 2019.
Tesla has had a history of trouble with meeting start of production targets, which makes the Model Y announcement an extra surprise. The Model Y, with a starting price here of $72,390 at launch (with a lower-priced version to follow), was originally set to start production this summer with first deliveries set for the fall. The early production start means that customer deliveries are now set to begin in March, letting customers get their vehicles much sooner. Deliveries of Tesla's most recent car, the Model 3, took about six months to start in Canada after the U.S. launch, so we expect the first Ys here sometime later this summer.
The Model Y is currently being built at the company's Fremont, CA, facility, but is set to expand to Shanghai next year and to a new German facility sometime later. Tesla also announced that the Model Y, which will come to Canada first in dual-motor Long Range and Performance variants, will have a longer estimated range than initially expected. The estimate is now 507 km for the LR, up from 454.
With record sales in 2019 of 367,500 worldwide in 2019, more than the previous two-years combined, Tesla posted a profit in Q4 of $105 million, marking back to back quarterly profits. The first time the company has done so. The electric pioneer expects to top 500,000 sales globally this year, and we expect to hear more about the company's first pickup through the coming year.
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