Over the weekend the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added a mysterious new ‘2022 Tesla Model Y AWD’ variant to their fuel efficiency listings.
With a range of 279 miles (449km), it sat between the (discontinued) Standard Range and Long Range variants, leading to speculation it could be a new Model Y soon to be released from Giga Texas.
Based on some recent additions in the 2022.8.2 software update, that appears to be the case.
After digging through the source code, hacker @greentheonly discovered a new Model Y Standard Range Plus. Not only was the new variant added, it was also given a prefix to show it was made at Giga Texas, and also dated as 2022Q1, lining up with when the variant was approved by the EPA.
Further analyzing 2022.8.2:
TX-made (2022Q1 dated) ModelY SR+ is added so I guess that would be the first car configuration out of that place pretty soon.
Several new battery types added too (I don't dig in ECUs so I don't know what exactly they are)— green (@greentheonly) March 16, 2022
Unfortunately the code did not mention range or any other properties about the car, like if it had a 4680 or lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack.
We still don’t know how Tesla will price this new entry-level Model Y. The existing Long Range and Performance variants have seen large price increases in the past week, pushing them further out of reach of most consumers.
If Tesla is able to bring this new variant in at a price closer to competing offerings like the VW ID.4, Hyundai IONIQ 5, or Kia EV6, it could quickly become a big seller.
