2024 Tesla Model Y facelift imagined ahead of debut

September: Model Y facelift imagined from Model 3 base

With the Model 3 facelift now out in the open and on its way to Australia, it's only be a matter of time before the Model Y – often a top-selling model in Australia – is blessed with the same updates.

The two cars are largely identical at the front and rear, and in the cabin – so the Model Y adopting the refreshed Model 3's styling and interior updates is surely right on the horizon.

For its part, Tesla has yet to comment on official timing, but insiders have hinted at an October 2024 production start – suggesting a reveal could occur in about a year.

Mike Stevens

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Facelifted 2024 Tesla Model Y, imagined by Theottle | © Wheels Media

March: Model Y facelift around the corner

Tesla is rumoured to be updating its popular Model Y medium electric SUV in 2024, following the purported Model 3 refresh later this year.

Inside sources told Reuters that the 2025 Model Y, codenamed project ‘Juniper’, will gain exterior and interior tweaks with a targeted production start date of October 2024.

It will come a year after the project ‘Highland’ 2024 Model 3 electric sedan update, which will reportedly start production in September at its retooled Shanghai factory, feature an even more simplified interior, upgraded ‘Autopilot’ 4.0 safety assistance hardware, and possibly a revised front and rear as spied in the US.

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While Tesla didn’t disclose any changes to the Model 3 and Model Y at its Investor Day event and ‘Master Plan’, it did emphasise on bringing down its supply chain and manufacturing costs, with the Model 3 seeing a 30 per cent reduction from 2018 to 2022.

The automaker also teased more of its upcoming third-generation EV, which is projected to be its highest volume model yet – almost double the Model 3 and Model Y – thanks to a 50 per cent reduction in production costs, and is rumoured to undercut the $50,000 price mark to rival fierce Chinese rivals such as the GWM Ora, BYD Atto 3 and MG ZS EV.

The Tesla Model Y was launched in 2020, before making it to Australia in mid-2022.

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Despite only being on sale for five months, it quickly rose to the top of the EV sales charts as the second-best selling electric model Down Under last year with 8717 examples sold insole base rear-wheel-drive variant only.

Deliveries of the hotter Model Y Performance are due later this year.

The Model Y adopts the same underpinnings and most of the sheetwork as the smaller Model 3, but in a more in-demand medium SUV body style. It currently starts from $69,300 to $95,300 before on-road costs in Australia following a series of recent price increases and cuts.