Tesla is expected to announce a debut date for the updated Model Y, which is rumored to be codenamed Juniper, soon. According to some sources, the new product will be presented as early as 2025.
According to Autoevolution, despite the fact that the Model Y was released three years after the Model 3, Tesla should have updated its best-seller long ago, shortly after the Model 3 Highland appeared on the market.
This did not happen for unknown reasons, which led to disappointing sales of the Model Y in 2024. At the same time, sales of the updated Model 3 did not increase as quickly as the company's management expected.
According to some experts, this is precisely why the company has recorded a decline in sales for the first time in its history. That's why the company decided to update the Model Y to encourage buyers.
During its third-quarter earnings call in October, Tesla announced that new car models would be launched in early 2025, most likely referring to the updated Model Y.
It was initially expected that this would be an affordable electric car called the Model 2, which Tesla was supposed to be working on, but Elon Musk shattered those expectations with a few radical statements.
At the same time, a series of spy photos, which captured test prototypes of the updated Model Y, showed that the company is preparing a radical restyling of the affordable model, called the Juniper.
The camouflaged electric crossover was spotted during tests in various regions of the US, Spain and China. Autoevolution also reports that their sources in China have confirmed that trial production is already underway.
The updated Model Y Juniper is expected to borrow design lines from the Model 3 Highland. However, it is likely that the car will have Cybercab-inspired headlights and a new light signature at the rear.
Confirmation that the model's restyling is inevitable is the delivery schedule for the rear-wheel drive version of the crossover in Europe. Instead of January 2025, deliveries of the Model Y with rear-wheel drive are scheduled for May 2025.
Production of the completely updated electric car will probably begin at the Giga Berlin factory, located on the outskirts of the German city of Berlin. This was promised by Elon Musk back in 2023.