Tesla Introduces a Two-Seat Model Y in France as a Commercial Utility Vehicle

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Tesla (TSLA) has started offering its commercial customers a two-seat configuration Model Y in France.

Besides offering the utility of a medium-sized van with a lot of storage space, this Model Y 2-seater also saves taxes for businesses operating in France.

Tesla Model Y was originally introduced as a mid-sized crossover electric SUV but now it’s being pitched as a commercial van for the first time.

The news of the two-seat Model Y van surfaced through Clément MAGUET, a Tesla Senior Account Manager in France. He published the following interior picture with some specifications of the 2-seater Model Y in an official LinkedIn post.

“France currently has a rolling fleet of around 6.3 million utility vehicles, mainly powered by diesel,” Clément wrote in his post. With a 2-seat Model Y van, Tesla is trying to grab a chunk of this large market and start the electrification of the logistics industry in the country.

Removing the rear passenger seat has created a large flatbed cargo volume inside the Model Y as we can observe in the above picture. According to the French Tesla manager, Model Y with the 2nd-row seats removed creates a luggage capacity of 2,158 liters (76.2 cu ft).

The best thing for businesses is that when they purchase a two-seat Model Y in France as a utility vehicle for commercial operations, the vehicle comes tax-free. Manageo.fr blog explains the tax exemption for commercial utility vehicles:

The purchase of a utility vehicle represents an investment expense for the company. The depreciation corresponding to the acquisition may be fully deducted from the taxable income, without any cap of any kind. This is not the case for passenger vehicles, whose deductibility of depreciation is capped according to the CO2 emission rate. Furthermore, no penalty must be paid when purchasing a utility vehicle.

The two-seat commercial Tesla Model Y electric vehicle in France is currently in the prototype phase. However, it will not be a big hurdle for Tesla to scale up production at Giga Berlin if the vehicle creates demand in France and the rest of Europe.

This is a genius move by Tesla. Instead of waiting years to design, develop, and produce a Tesla electric van, the automaker converted the Model Y to a commercial utility van. In the future, this segment might become profitable and add a sizable number of vehicle sales to the quarterly and yearly delivery numbers.

Two-Seat Tesla Model Y is coming to Tesla Store near you in France

Tesla has started exhibiting the two-seat Model Y EV in the following cities in France. Tesla will be showing this customized commercial-purpose Model Y from March to July (specific dates and store locations are mentioned in the list below).