Tesla has announced that its redesigned Model Y SUV is coming to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in March, with a starting price just shy of $60,000.
The news comes just two weeks after Tesla first revealed the new-look Model Y and said it was coming to China and other Asian markets, also in March. Thursday’s announcement means the company is effectively launching the revamped SUV simultaneously around the globe — a departure from the multiple-month gap between the Asian and North American launch of the Model 3 sedan refresh in late 2023 and early 2024.
The redesigned Model Y is being launched at a crucial time for Tesla, which delivered fewer vehicles in 2024 than it did in 2023. Tesla has repeatedly warned investors that it is in between “two major growth waves” coming off the success of the Model Y and promised that it will roll out mysterious new models meant to be built on existing production lines. Those models will likely be cheaper than Tesla’s current offerings (which start in the low $40,000 range), but it’s not clear by how much.
CEO Elon Musk has implied that those new models, plus the Cybercab that was teased last October, will help bridge the company’s evolution from an automaker into a robotics and AI player.
But at the same time, Tesla’s vehicle lineup has been aging. Tesla has now refreshed each of its core vehicles — the Model S and 3 sedans and the Model X and Y SUVs — but has only launched one truly new model in the last four years, the Cybertruck. While it became the best-selling electric truck in the U.S. in 2024, the Cybertruck did little to boost the company’s bottom line last year, and it does not seem to be the runaway hit Musk hoped for.
The new-look Model Y could offer some relief, though it is coming in at a higher price point than the existing versions. The starting price for the “Launch Series” special edition, which is an all-wheel-drive variant, is $59,990. That gets buyers a 320-mile-range battery and it includes Tesla’s most advanced driver-assistance software, which it calls “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” — typically an $8,000 option. The older Model Y currently starts at $44,990 for a 337-mile rear-wheel drive version.
The most noticeable changes to the new Model Y come on the exterior, where the bubbly front fascia has been ditched in favor of a more cinched nose with a thin light bar that stretches across the hood. The rear of the vehicle also now has a light strip that stretches the full width.
Inside the refreshed SUV, Tesla has added a configurable light strip that rims the cabin. There’s a new rear-passenger touchscreen and some quality-of-life upgrades like powered rear seats and improved suspension.
