Tesla Model Y Made In Shanghai Adds Comfort For Rear Passengers

Starting in mid-October all Tesla Model Y units manufactured at the Shanghai Gigafactory will incorporate a series of innovations that will make sitting and movement more comfortable for passengers in the rear row. The Austin manufacturer has improved the rear seats by making the seat cushion now a little bit wider, and also by adding a new emergency opening system for the rear doors.

Specifically, the Model Y seat will gain 30 millimeters (1,18 inches) in the length of the bench, which will allow the occupant's thighs to rest entirely on it, according to what was just published by Chinese local media Yiche. This update provides better support for the legs of the passengers in this row, reducing their fatigue during longer trips, as explained in the document that the manufacturer itself has published. Additionally, the refreshed Tesla Model Y will also feature a manual release system for the rear doors in case they need to be opened in an emergency situation.

For now there is no notification from the manufacturer about whether these improvements will also be implemented in the units made at Giga-Texas in Austin, for the American market, and in Giga-Berlin for the European models. In any case given that a good part of the vehicles that are delivered in Europe are actually imported from Giga-Shanghai, it is highly possible that this improvement will be seen in the Old Continent in the coming months.

According to information on the Tesla website in China, both the delivery time and the final price of the Model Y in all its variants remain exactly the same as before this update. The three versions available are still an entry-level rear-wheel drive Model Y that costs 316,900 RMB (about 45,000 dollars); the Model Y Long Range with two motors and four-wheel drive at 394,900 RMB (56,000 dollars) and finally, the Model Y Performance, which costs almost 60,000 dollars.

Sales in China of the Model Y in September reached a total of 46,694 units, which basically makes it the best-selling electric SUV in the country, according to data published by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) last October 12th. From January to September 2022, Tesla sold 219,112 units of this EV model, a staggering 135.77% more than in the same period last year, in which the number of registrations reached 92.930 units, according to data gathered and compared by Chinese website CnEVPost.

On September 30, local tech website Huxiu, citing unnamed sources, announced that Model 3 and Model Y prices would drop significantly in China. According to this information, the price reduction would reach 40,000 RMB (about 5,700 dollars) in the case of the Model Y, which would place the entry price of Tesla's most popular electric car in the Asian country at 270,000 RMB, (about 38,500 dollars), placing it at one of the cheapest levels since Tesla offers this vehicle in the Chinese market.

Sources: yiche, cnevpost

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.