Updating the world’s best-selling vehicle is a tall order, but Tesla may have just pulled it off.
The revised Model Y “Juniper” looks better, feels fancier inside and has more toys. The interior looks and feels better and more premium, and it keeps things conventional enough not to alienate more traditionalist car buyers.
So does it have what it takes to keep its global best-seller title? We’ll soon find out.
Tesla’s Romanian arm invited me to check out a pre-production Model Y Juniper they brought to the brand’s new headquarters in Bucharest. It was a long-range model, finished in Stealth Grey featuring the new base 19-inch “Crossflow” wheels. Inside, it had black faux leather upholstery, so it looks a bit dark in the photos. The lighting could have been better, especially given how dark the car, the wheels and the interior are. I had to crank up the ISO on my camera for the photos to be usable.
The car I checked out came from Tesla’s factory in Germany, which will be the only source for Model Ys sold in Europe.
Walking into the backroom where the new Model Y was on display, I was struck by how different its presence is compared to the pre-facelift model. The front light bar and the more chiseled look of the front end work wonders with the rest of the design, and my first impression was that it looked way better than before.
Photo by: InsideEVs/Andrei Nedelea
Photo by: InsideEVs/Andrei Nedelea
The headlight projectors have been moved down to where the fog lights were on the older model, but you don’t notice them too much unless they’re on. This has to be one of the best applications of a two-tier front light design because you mostly look at the full-width light bar, which certainly grabs your attention.
From the side, not much is different aside from the wheels. The mirrors are the same size as before, but the plastic housing now has a horizontal crease that breaks up their height. The exterior highlight for me was the rear light bar, which is unlike any I’ve seen on a car. Before seeing the car in person, I didn’t understand why Tesla was so proud of this design feature, but now I do.
Unlike basically all other cars with a rear light bar, you don’t actually see it in the Juniper. It’s hidden, and the light you see is what shines on a silver panel; this doesn’t always come across in photos, but in real life it’s quite striking.
It’s a unique look that helps the car stand out and makes the pre-refresh model look old-fashioned. The subtle, diffuse light from the rear light bar contrasts with the harsh outline of the boomerang-shaped brake lights when they light up—I took a photo of the car with the brake lights on to highlight this difference.
Photo by: InsideEVs/Andrei Nedelea
Photo by: InsideEVs/Andrei Nedelea
Photo by: InsideEVs/Andrei Nedelea
The interior of the Model Y Juniper is completely new, with nothing obvious being carried over. Just like with the Model 3 Highland, all the materials were nicer to the touch than before, and the assembly quality also seemed better. It feels a lot fancier than before, and it finally deserves to be called a “premium” interior, which was a bit of a stretch for its predecessor.
Photo by: InsideEVs/Andrei Nedelea
Tesla’s decision to remove the stalks behind the steering wheel in the updated Model 3 was almost unanimously disliked. The manufacturer listened and kept the indicator stalk in the new Model Y (so there’s no need to stick on one of these aftermarket stalks) even though the rest of the interior makeover closely mirrors the Model 3 Highland. This includes the main screen that has a thinner bezel, as well as the addition of a second screen in the back.
The rear screen is still placed too low to serve a real entertainment purpose, so even though you can do a lot more through it, you’ll mainly just adjust climate settings here. While in the back, I noticed two new buttons on the side of the seat squab. These are used to electrically fold the rear seat and then put it back up again.
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InsideEVs/Andrei Nedelea
In the older Model Y, you couldn’t do this electrically, and you had to unlatch them and then put them back up manually. There are also buttons in the trunk, which serve the same purpose, and the little icons on the buttons show what they do when viewed from the exact perspective you have when operating the buttons—the ones on the sides of the seat show a lateral perspective while the ones in the trunk give you a three-quarter look at what the buttons do.
Also new for the Model Y Juniper is a drain plug in the floor of the frunk, similar to what you get in a Ford Mustang Mach-E. Some owners missed having a drain in their Tesla’s frunk, so they installed one themselves, but the revised model has one from the factory, and you can simply remove the plug, and all the liquid inside will drain under the car.
All these changes add up and make the revised Model Y feel more different from its predecessor than you may expect. We haven’t had a chance to drive it yet, but we should get one of these cars to review sometime in February.
Given that it features a softened suspension setup complete with frequency-selective dampers, dramatically improving ride comfort in the updated Model 3 (but affecting its sportiness somewhat) we expect the same from the refreshed Model Y.
