We got our first look at the Tesla Model Y’s refresh without camouflage Thursday, narrowly keeping CEO Elon Musk’s promise not to update the car in 2024. Now, the updated car has been fully revealed, and it sure does look like Tesla slapped a Cybertruck headlight and rear light bar on an existing Model Y.
The updated front end still carries character lines down the hood from the A-pillars, like the prior model did, but now those meet the dividers between segments of the Model Y’s three-part front light bar. The lower grille opening and fog lights look similar in shape to the outgoing car, though the latter have been raised up nearly to the level of the headlights.
Out back, the Model Y now looks a lot more like Porsche’s Macan EV than it ever did before. The new full-width light bar blends into the existing tail lights out at its ends, a move I’ve certainly never seen an automaker try when facelifting a vehicle — probably because it ends up looking a bit weird and mismatched. The bumper, too, has been redesigned with more of an aggressive rear diffuser look.
The update has thus far only appeared on Tesla’s Chinese and Japanese websites, leaving the question of when the European and North American markets will see the new car. Tesla claims (via Google Translate) that the updates improve aerodynamic efficiency and should squeeze a bit more range out of the Y, but we likely won’t know the full reality of that claim until we see updated range figures for comparison. Maybe by then Musk will have something to say about a major update to his company’s best-selling car.
