SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk is decidedly firing on all cylinders. Having unveiled his programme to send humans to Mars via his company SpaceX, he has now announced two new events at Tesla Motors: a new model to be presented on Oct 17, and a solar energy package in collaboration with SolarCity on Oct 28.
For the first event on Oct 17, the Tesla Motors CEO has promised to unveil an unexpected model. So there is little chance that the announcement will be about the Model 3, a compact and affordable sedan that was unveiled in March 2016 but which will not be delivered before late 2017 in the USA, and not before 2018 in Europe. What is imaginable is that the announcement could concern a crossover version of this sedan that would be cheaper and perhaps less spectacular than the current Model X, the American brand's high-end SUV with a starting price of US$74,000. If the new vehicle is named Model Y, the future acronym for the Tesla range will be S3XY.
Not quite so much mystery surrounds the joint conference planned by Tesla and energy services specialist SolarCity to be held on Oct 28. The two companies, both of which belong to Elon Musk, are expected to unveil a mass market residential solar energy system, that includes a Powerwall battery and a Tesla charger. The Powerwall “home battery” was first launched in 2015.
