Tesla's bombshell new car announcement! li bin and li xiang respond

On the evening of July 16, Tesla suddenly announced on its official Weibo account, "Model Y L, see you in the golden autumn!" without any prior notice, and attached two official images of the Model Y L. This news quickly attracted industry attention. Subsequently, Tesla Vice President Tao Lin retweeted this post and confirmed that the Model Y L is positioned as a "luxurious SUV with six spacious seats for all scenarios."

On the same day, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the latest vehicle new product announcement list, which includes two products from Tesla in the ministry's directory. The product names are pure electric multi-purpose passenger vehicle and pure electric sedan, with model numbers TSL6500BEVBA0 and TSL7000BEVBR1, respectively. The former is the application image of the Tesla Model Y L, positioned as a large six-seat luxury pure electric SUV model.

From the declaration images, the new car still adheres to the design style of the currently sold model. The front face features a (through-type light strip) combined with a split headlight design. On the side, due to an increase in the car's length, the overall shape appears slimmer, with a slightly upward trend in the side waistline. The new car offers a hidden door handle design and has been equipped with brand new 19-inch wheels, with tire specifications of 255/45R19 in the front and 275/45R19 in the rear, giving it a highly sporty visual effect. At the rear, the new car's tail badge carries exclusive lettering, making it very recognizable.

In terms of dimensions, the new car measures 4976/1920/1668mm in length, width, and height, with a wheelbase of 3040mm, expected to be positioned between the Model Y and Model X. For comparison, the Tesla Model Y measures 4797/1920/1624mm, with a wheelbase of 2890mm. In contrast, the new car has increased in size, except for the width which remains the same; the length has increased by 179mm, the height by 44mm, and the wheelbase by 150mm. In terms of seating layout, the new car will feature a 2+2+2 six-seat configuration. As a reference, the currently available Tesla Model Y is only offered in a five-seat version.

In terms of power, the new car is equipped with front and rear drive motors with model numbers 3D3 and 3D7, with maximum powers of 142 kW and 198 kW, respectively. Compared to the current Model Y Long Range All-Wheel Drive version, the power of the front and rear motors has been increased by 5 kW and 4 kW, respectively.

As of now, Tesla China has two models for sale: the Model 3 and Model Y. Both models became instant bestsellers upon their launch, but since then, Tesla has not introduced any new products, only updating and refreshing the aforementioned models. With the automotive industry becoming extremely competitive, the speed of new car launches in the domestic market has accelerated compared to the past. In the context of domestic car manufacturers continuously launching new models, Tesla, with its limited product lineup and relatively slow pace of updates, faces the biggest challenge of declining sales. According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, from January to June this year, Tesla China's cumulative wholesale sales (including exports) were 364,500 units, a year-on-year decline of 14.6%; cumulative retail sales in the Chinese market were 263,400 units, a year-on-year decline of 5.4%, with a market share of 4.8%. It is the only company in the top ten of the retail sales list of new energy manufacturers that experienced a decline.

Tesla's official announcement of the Model Y L, which came almost without any prior notice, is undoubtedly a good signal. Many netizens have expressed that the emergence of the Model Y L caught everyone off guard. It is worth mentioning that after Tesla announced the upcoming release of the Model Y L, both Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Auto, and Li Bin, CEO of NIO, retweeted the post and commented on it.

Li Xiang stated: "Six worthy of respect pure electric SUVs have arrived. Users looking for six-seat pure electric SUVs in the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan price range can look forward to this. Of course, if the vehicle requirement is for five seats, feel free to pay attention to the Ideal i6, which will be released in September." Additionally, after the Ideal i8 officially started accepting reservations today, Li Xiang posted again, stating: "Most Chinese car companies have a small deposit phase. We don't yet have the popularity of Xiaomi, so we can't skip directly to large reservations without a small deposit; we also can't yet do what Tesla does, without any deposits—big or small—without a launch event, just selling directly on the official website. We hope that through the joint efforts of all Ideal Auto colleagues, we can achieve this in the future: no small or large deposits, no launch events, just selling directly on the official website."

Li Bin also retweeted Tesla's post and stated, "With the continuous improvement of charging and swapping infrastructure and product technology innovation, the pure electric era of large space SUVs has arrived." He also took the opportunity to promote his own product: "The Ledo L90 is an innovative work born in this context." In addition, NIO's Senior Vice President and President of Ledo Auto, Shen Fei, pointed out, "The six-seat SUV market is getting very lively in the second half of the year, with more and more pure electric six-seat SUVs. Just in the past few days, three pure electric six-seat SUVs have been officially announced, making the trend towards electrification increasingly prominent. Everyone is competing for user value and user experience!"

According to the plan, the Model Y L will be launched this autumn. As for the price, for reference, the current Model Y refresh is priced between 263,500 and 313,500 yuan. With the subsequent release of the Tesla Model Y L, the competition in the pure electric six-seat SUV market will become increasingly intense.

On the same day, the Tesla Model 3+ also appeared in the new vehicle declaration directory of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. According to the declaration information, the new car's exterior basically continues the design style of the currently sold models, with tail lights featuring a highly integrated design and the rear carrying the "Model 3+" label to distinguish it from the current Model 3. In terms of power, the new car adopts rear-wheel drive, mainly enhancing the maximum power of the motor. The declaration information shows that the Tesla Model 3+ is equipped with a ternary lithium battery pack provided by LG, with a battery capacity of 78.4 kWh.