Tesla's next model bound for production is the Model Y, a small SUV related to the Model 3.

The company released a teaser for the vehicle last June and at the time promised a launch date in 2019.

However, CEO Elon Musk said during Tesla's first quarter earnings call Wednesday that production of the Model Y will likely start in 2020.

“I would say it’s probably closer to 24 months from now…2020 is a more likely prospect,” he said.

His reply was was in response to a question about a Reuters report from April that said Tesla is looking to start production of the Model Y in November 2019 at the company's vehicle plant in Fremont, California.

Musk during the earnings call also said that the Model Y will need to be produced at a new plant, as the Fremont plant was “jammed to the gills” and “crazy packed” with production of the Model 3, Model S and Model Y.

The Model Y is an important part of Tesla's ambitious plan to deliver as many as one million cars annually, a plan that began last summer with the start of Model 3 production. At the Model 3's launch, Tesla said it hoped to build 500,000 of the sedans per year, and the company targets a similar number for the Model Y.

However, production of the Model 3 hasn't been going smoothly. Tesla built just 2,400 of the sedans in the first six months of production, although the company says it is currently building approximately that amount per week and targets a 5,000-per week figure in the next two months.

Musk revealed via a tweet in April that the company will need to reach a rate of 5,000 per week before more variants can be added, like a dual-motor model. At the time he said production of the dual-motor model would "probably" happen in the summer.

Tesla still has plenty of hurdles ahead of it, the biggest being its excessive cash outflows. The company lost $784.6 million on revenue of $3.41 billion in the first quarter. It was the third consecutive quarter of losses exceeding $600 million. The company has had just two positive quarters since it became a public company in 2010.