Verge Staff Here’s everything you need to know about the Tesla Model Y: a compact SUV, or crossover, that will serve as a companion vehicle to the Model 3. The car was first unveiled in 2019 and will begin production in late 2020. The Model Y shares about 75 percent of its parts with the Model 3, which is currently Tesla’s most affordable car. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Model Y will be about 10 percent bigger, cost about 10 percent more, and will have slightly less range than the Model 3. The Model Y won’t have the “Falcon Wing” doors that are found on Tesla’s bigger SUV, the Model X. But drivers can expect to sit up higher and enjoy less obstructed views in a Model Y. The Model Y will be the linchpin to Tesla’s goal of delivering 1 million cars by 2020. Compact SUVs are among the most popular vehicle class in the world. The Model Y could help Tesla tap into that wave of demand and vacuum up customer’s reservation payments before production begins. Mar 15, 2019 The Model Y will be a test of Tesla’s popularity Elon Musk often says that the key to Tesla’s success is how people talk about the company. “Great word-of-mouth is why Model 3 is the best-selling electric car, despite no advertising or paid endorsements,” he wrote in September 2018. The company repeatedly admits this, too. In its most recent 10-K filing with the SEC, Tesla said word of mouth, along with media coverage “have been the primary drivers of our vehicle sales leads,” which is how and why the company eschews traditional advertising. But Tesla is still coming off a volatile 2018, and it has recently made changes in the name of cost-cutting that put this basic tenet of the company in some jeopardy. With Tesla closing many of its stores and shifting sales to an online-only model, the company will also be more reliant on good word of mouth than ever before. If any damage to its reputation has been done, it might become obvious soon because Tesla is about to reveal — and potentially start taking preorders for — its second mass-market car on Thursday: the Model Y compact SUV.