Tesla Model Y News

Tesla Australia has confirmed the Model Y L will launch Down Under in the coming months.The brand has revealed few other details about the Model Y L in Australia, so we do not know how much it will cost, or exactly when it will arrive.However, based on its approval for sale in regulatory documents in late February, it is likely the three-row SUV will officially go on sale in Australia within the next few months. The Model Y L offers a six-seat layout, targeted to build on the success of the standard Model Y, which has continued its run at the top of the EV sales charts in Australia. The seats are set up in a 2+2+2 configuration.There are limited three-row electric SUVs on sale, with most carrying a hefty price tag and luxury features, such as the incoming Cadillac Vistiq, which will start from more than $100K. The Volvo EX90 is another car in the category, with a starting price north of $120K. The Model Y L will also likely be a more affordable alternative to the Kia EV9, which starts from $97,000, before on-road costs.The six-seat Tesla measures up overall bigger than its five-seat counterpart. It will be powered by the same dual electric motor set-up found on the existing long-range all-wheel drive variant, producing a combined 378kW.We also know it will have 19-inch wheels as standard, but all other technical details are still not known at this stage. In China, the car has an 18-speaker sound system and a 16.0-inch central touchscreen, as well as an 8.0-inch rear touchscreen. Over there, the car starts from 339,000 Yuan (around $70,000). Cars imported from China usually carry a price hike once they land in Australia.This likely means the Model Y L will also have a price jump over the current Model Y long-range all-wheel drive variant, which has a starting price of $68,900, before on-road costs. 

Internal combustion power is still by far the most popular type of car in Australia, the latest sales data has revealed. 

The electric vehicle space in Australia continues to grow, with another competitor joining the battle imminently in the Hyundai Elexio.The Elexio will be Hyundai’s first car on sale in Australia which has been built in China, and it brings with it an important test for the brand’s future EV strategy. It will have to take on the three best-sellers of the electric SUV segment, including the top-selling Tesla Model Y along with the BYD Sealion 7 and Kia EV5.The Elexio will have to beat the best to be the best, so here is how it sizes up to its competitors, at least on paper.  The Elexio lands in Australia with an attractive introductory drive-away offer of $59,990, which is available until the 31st of March. From that point it is expected a cheaper entry-level variant of the Elexio will arrive in Australia, for around a similar starting price. The up-spec Elexio for under $60k appears to be a competitive deal compared to the base variants of its rivals, but when the drive-away deal expires, it will be the most expensive of the four, possibly more equivalent to higher-grade versions of each.It may be a different story when the cheaper variant of the Elexio lands in time for the drive-away deal’s expiry, offering a more fair comparison. Using before on-road costs pricing, the Sealion 7 is the cheapest of the bunch at just under $55,000, while the EV5 is available from $56,770. The Model Y is only slightly more affordable than the Elexio's introductory price at $58,900 before on-roads, making it more expensive by the time you're driving it out of a Tesla delivery centre.The Elexio shares similar dimensions to the Kia EV5, but it is slightly smaller than the Sealion 7 and the Model Y. The Elexio leads the way in the important driving range category, being the only car in this comparison offering more than 500km. This is mostly due to its 88kWh battery being bigger than the rest of the pack. It is significantly larger, for example, than the entry-level versions of the EV5 (64.2kWh) and the Model Y (62.5kWh). The incoming base variant of the Elexio is expected to offer the same if not a better driving range, as it features the same 88kWh and will likely have smaller wheels. It is a tight race when it comes to charging times, with the Elexio’s being the slowest at 38 minutes for 10-80 per cent top-ups, but all these cars boast times of less than 40 minutes. While all these cars have a single electric motor, the Elexio has less power than the Sealion 7 and the Model Y and the same as the EV5, with 160kW and 230Nm. The Model Y’s 255kW and 450Nm is the best of the category. The Elexio is not yet available with the option of all-wheel drive, while the other three cars can be in higher trim levels. The Elexio currently on sale has 20-inch wheels, which are the largest in this pack. Unlike the Sealion 7 and the EV5, it features a 27.0-inch display which spans across the dashboard as opposed to having separate sections. The Tesla also differs from the Sealion 7 and the EV5, with its 16.0-inch horizontal ‘floating tablet’ central screen and no screen real estate for a dedicated digital instrument cluster. The Elexio is similarly kitted-out with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation and wireless phone charging capabilities. This version of the Elexio also comes with a head-up display, something which along with phone mirroring is missing from the Model Y.All four of these cars received five-star ANCAP safety ratings with high scores in all categories. The enticing but temporary drive-away deal for Elexio makes it a strong prospect for buyers in the mid-size EV segment, especially with its comparatively superior driving range. This comes at a detriment to other aspects of the car, such as the power and torque figures, which trail that of the Sealion 7 and the Model Y. Its 27.0-inch display gives the Elexio a different flavour to the rest, while it has much of the same equipment levels as its rivals here.The Elexio will have a tough time dislodging the established trio of competitors, but in a time when EV sales are ever expanding, now might be the best time to pull it off. 

Elon Musk’s Grok artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot assistant is officially rolling out to Tesla vehicles in Australia in a staggered series of over-the-air software updates over the coming days.

Tesla looks set to soon introduce a new, stretched version of the top-selling Model Y electric SUV in Australia with three rows of seating.

Tesla is Australia’s most popular electric vehicle (EV) brand… but for how much longer?

While several big name car makers walk back their all-electric plans, the suggestion that electric vehicles are yesterday’s news doesn’t tally with growing sales.Electric vehicle (EV) sales still only account for 8.3 per cent of the total market, but grew significantly in the key SUV and light commercial vehicle segments. Notably, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) have also grown significantly in recent years and combined EV and PHEV sales accounted for more than 13 per cent of the overall market.While there is still clearly a long way to go, there are also some clear signs that Australians are slowly starting to embrace EVs as they become more diverse in both price and type. Until last year, the market was dominated by Tesla, with the American brand often accounting for more than half the total EV sales.In 2025 the Tesla Model Y remained the best-selling EV, but the BYD Sealion 7 was its closest rival and the Kia EV5 and Geely EX5 also sold in good numbers. In total there were 10 EVs in the top 100 selling vehicles last year, underlining the increasing variety that is attracting new customers.BYD is the leading in this regard with four of the most popular EVs coming from the Chinese brand, and each very different propositions appealing to different buyers. These are the Sealion 7 mid-size SUV, Atto 3 small SUV, Seal sedan and Dolphin hatch.The arrival of the $23,990 Atto 1 will open up the EV market to even more customers too, as it will be amongst the most-affordable new cars on sale this year. In many respects, this is the moment the market has been waiting for, with EVs effectively achieving price parity with conventional petrol and diesel models. While not every EV is as price-competitive as the Atto 1, the increasing cost of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles only helps make EVs more appealing to buyers looking to save on their fuel bill.The growth of PHEVs will only further accelerate the electric future, as the long-touted ‘bridging technology’ will introduce more motorists to electric performance, while still allowing for the ICE back-up.PHEV sales have been on a sharp upward trajectory the past two years, growing more than 130 per cent in 2025 off the back of the BYD Shark 6, BYD Sealion 6, Mitsubishi Outlander and GWM Haval H6 GT. PHEV sales are expected to grow in 2026 and beyond, as more established brands, including market-leading Toyota, join the race. This will only accelerate the electrification on Australian roads, adding to the significant volume of hybrids already sold.While there is still some way to go before EVs become a majority on the roads, a reminder they account for less than 10 per cent at present, it’s clear that despite a slowing down of interest from manufacturers, electric cars are here to stay.Best selling electric cars 2025

​​Tesla has today announced a name change for its Model 3 and Model Y in Australia, introducing the "Premium" moniker, while also confirming the cheaper stripped-back Standard models offered overseas would not be coming to Australia.

Reports have emerged that Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX is considering a merger with one of the billionaire’s other major companies ahead of going public on the stock market.A tie-up between SpaceX and one of xAI or Tesla, all headed up by the contentious billionaire, is on the cards according to Reuters, with SpaceX expected to hit the stock market valued at as much as US$1.5t (A$2.16t).While reports suggest insiders are leaning towards a merger between SpaceX and xAI, both being private companies while Tesla is public, there’s talk that Tesla will eventually join the mega-company that is being touted as ‘Elon Inc’.Tesla being more closely associated with Musk’s other brands isn't out of the ordinary, the allegedly forthcoming Tesla Roadster has been touted as a “Tesla/SpaceX collab” according to Musk, while Tesla and SpaceX do business in the battery space for the rocket company’s storage needs.Tesla also ‘loaned’ a series of employees to Twitter (now X) to help with coding shortly after the former Trump ally bought the social media network.Merging Tesla and SpaceX presents more complexities than xAI and SpaceX, according to experts Reuters spoke to. Aside from the public/private company factor, Tesla investors might see the merger as “dilutive” to their focus on Tesla.“Combining all or part of his empire into Tesla would involve a number of complexities,” John Streur told Reuters. Streur is a Senior Managing Partner at Boston Common Asset Management. “If the valuations are extremely high it will be viewed as dilutive to Tesla shareholders.”While it’s all up in the air at the moment for Tesla, the effects it might have on the brand's products can be seen in the aforementioned ways the companies already work together - more AI integration into Tesla’s cars including autonomous features, plus the potential for more experimentation with SpaceX contributions to the brand’s features.The future of Tesla as a car brand is generally changing slowly already, with Musk touting Tesla’s robots and discontinuing the Model X SUV and Model S sedan, the latter being instrumental early in Tesla’s rise to EV dominance.It was announced in late January that the factory in California where the Model S and X were built would be converted into a production line for Tesla's Optimus robots.The loss of S and X won’t greatly impact the brand’s bottom line, though, as its Model 3 and Model Y reportedly accounted for 97 per cent of the brand’s 2025 global sales.

Tesla will end production of its groundbreaking Model S sedan and its Model X SUV spin-off, the two models that put the brand on the map and arguably started the global electrification push.Controversial CEO Elon Musk said the Model S and Model X will reach the end of the line before the middle of this year as the company reconfigures its California factory to produce its Optimus home assistant robot.The Model S and X were discontinued in Australia in early 2023, and our market never saw the significantly updated models that were sold only in left-hand-drive markets over the last few years of their production run.“It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge,” Musk said during the brand’s fourth quarter earnings call.“If you’re interested in buying a Model S and X, now would be the time to order it.”However, while the Model S and X might go down in history as one of the most influential duos ever built, ushering in the age of electrification, the writing has been on the wall for the larger Tesla models for some time.According to Tesla’s Q4 2025 Production, Deliveries & Deployments statement, the Model 3 and Y accounted for 97 per cent of the brand’s global footprint last year.According to Musk, once the Model S and X factory is re-purposed for Optimus robots, it is targeting a production of one million units a year. The home assistant robot will apparently be in its as-yet-unrevealed third-generation form, which Musk says is the first version meant for mass production.Meanwhile, the Tesla factory in Texas will begin producing the brand’s latest model, the driverless Cybercab, over the course of the first half of the year.According to Musk, the Cybercab won’t have “human controls” and a recent pre-production version spotted testing in the wild stuck relatively closely to the cars shown at the company’s I, Robot reveal event in 2025.While driverless trials have already started in the US for Tesla’s pilot robotaxi service without back-up drivers, the path to implementing driverless taxis in Australia is much less clear.Although Tesla has launched its self-driving software, styled FSD (Supervised) into our market, it currently exists in something of a legaslative grey area, specifically requiring the driver to be aware at all times. As long as the driver meets the monitoring conditions in the car, it can fully navigate of its own accord simply based on the in-car navigation software.It is unclear what happens in the event of an accident, although regulators are working on a legal framework, aware that more autonomous vehicles will be on our shores before long.Tesla is not the only automotive company with a stake in robotics or autonomous vehicles. While almost every brand, especially Chinese carmakers, are developing autonomous vehicle tech, other companies like Hyundai are heavily invested in robotics.The South Korean giant purchased US robotics firm Boston Dynamics, which is known for its humanoid and quadruped robots, used for a variety of industrial and military applications.Tesla’s local operation continues to tick along nicely, with the Model Y retaining the title of the best-selling electric car in Australia by a healthy margin. It was also the 10th best-selling vehicle in Australia overall in 2025.Its Model 3 isn't faring as well, down 61.3 per cent year-on-year, although it is still the third best-selling EV in Australia.The biggest threat to Tesla is the rise of Chinese rival BYD, which stormed the charts in 2025 off the back of its popular and competitively priced range of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.While the Model Y kept its closest competitor, the BYD Sealion 7, at bay last year, it’s hard to imagine the pioneering American brand staying ahead of its competitors for long with little in the way of new product on the horizon.