Tesla Model Y News

The electric car price war that has raged in Australia for the past few months might be drawing to a close.

Australia’s favourite car brand has taken a shot at electric car-only brands such as Tesla and Polestar.Toyota Australia’s Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations intimated car makers that only sell EVs are in for a tough time.“I’m not sure I’d want to be a single EV-only manufacturer right now,” said Hanley.“People are now moving back to hybrid and particularly plug-in hybrid. Interesting.”Sales of hybrid cars such as the Toyota RAV4 and Hyundai Kona are up more than 113 per cent through the first six months of this year.Toyota announced last week it had delivered more than 100,000 hybrids in Australia the past financial year. The RAV4 led the charge with 38,632 sales for in the past 12 months, followed by the Corolla (20,375), Camry (16,872), Corolla Cross (7,876), Kluger (7,311) and Yaris Cross (6,077).Plug-in hybrids are in a similar purple patch with sales up by about 130 per cent this year.Electric cars sales have plateaued after a very strong 2023 with sales up 16.5 per cent this year. EV sales were up more than 160 per cent last year.Toyota has always maintained battery electric cars are just part of the future mix of vehicles and they are a long way from becoming the default choice of buyers.“Toyota's always been about the long term: we don't plan for five years, we plan for 20 to 30 years. And that's what you're seeing right now in play is that multi pathways strategy that we've been talking about for a long time,” said Hanley.Toyota just launched its first electric car - the bZ4X - in Australia earlier this year with mixed results. It has only sold 555 examples since February compared to Tesla shifting 23,116 examples of its Model Y and Model 3 in the same time.Hanley said the company wouldn't follow Tesla and slash the price of its EV.Despite their increasing popularity Toyota Australia still does not sell any plug-in hybrids locally despite offering plug-in hybrid versions of the Prius, C-HR and RAV4 overseas.Hanley promised a wide variety of vehicles were on the agenda for Toyota in Australia.“100 per cent you can expect hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles, fuel cell electric vehicles and I dare say some time in the future even synthetic fuel vehicles, hydrogen conversion vehicles of conventional ICE engines are also something we are considering,” he said.Toyota has long been a champion of hydrogen power and it currently has a fleet of Mirai Fuel Cell vehicles trialling in Australia.Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles convert hydrogen to electricity that is stored in a battery, which then powers an electric motor. The only tailpipe emissions is water.Hanley previously told CarsGuide hydrogen fuel cell vehicles won’t be popular for the next three to five years but will become more important in the future. Refuelling infrastructure is one of the biggest problems with only a handful of outlets nationwide.He did say Toyota Australia will sell a hydrogen fuel cell car in the next two years, but only in areas where there is the infrastructure to support it which, reading between the lines, means Canberra.

The first spy pictures of the 2025 Tesla Model Y update have appeared, known internally as ‘Juniper’. 

interested in Australia's most popular new vehicles? Here is a list ranking sales from from 1-100 between January 1 and June 30, 2024.

China is now the third-largest source for new cars in Australia, beaten only by Japan and Thailand for cars exported here.

The cost of electric cars is coming down at last and it’s happening fast, too, with big brands slashing prices.

Following preliminary sales results announced in February, JATO dynamics has confirmed that the Tesla Model Y was the world’s best selling car in 2023. This historic statistic marks the first time an electric car has been the most popular vehicle globally. It achieved 1,223,000 sales for a huge 64 per cent improvement on 2022 to beat previous winners such as the Toyota RAV4 (1,075,000) and Honda CR-V (846,000).Although Model Y’s lead is perhaps not surprising to Oceanic, US or European readers, JATO dynamics analyst Felipe Munoz points out the astounding achievement given the Model Y’s lower demand in emerging markets. The strength of Japanese makers in general, and the RAV4 and CR-V in particular, is that they are not only popular in markets like the United States, Australia and Europe but are offered in lower cost guises that can succeed in growth markets including India (4.13 million sales), Brazil (2.12 million) and Iran (1.43 million).Following the CR-V came the Toyota Corolla sedan (803,000), Corolla Cross small SUV (715,000) and Camry sedan (650,000).The world’s most popular pick-up truck was the Ford F-150 (623,000) closely followed by the Toyota HiLux (605,000). In ninth spot was the Nissan Sentra (534,000) with the Tesla Model 3 (508,000) sneaking into the top 10. Australia’s top 10 featured the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max all ahead of the fourth-place Toyota RAV4. The Model Y took sixth spot locally trailing another Chinese-made SUV, the MG ZS. There was not a single passenger car in our top-10 – all were either SUVs or light commercial vehicles. It’s also worth noting our new-car market is forecast around 1.2 million units this year – less than the Model Y on its own globally.But Tesla may not remain at the top of the tree this year, and it will certainly become more challenging come 2025. Its Model 3 and Model Y are both due a facelift if they are to stay competitive in mature markets. Additionally, there is so much growth coming from what Jato has defined as emerging markets that the Model Y and Model 3 are not well-placed to capture. In total, these countries accounted for 22 per cent of new vehicle sales last year. The other looming threat for Tesla is China. For the first time in 2023, Chinese brands sold more cars than United States brands. The highest selling model was the BYD Qin sedan in 12th followed by the Song Plus – known as the Sealion 6 here – in 19th spot. Japan remained at the top of the tree, with 29.1 per cent of all new vehicle sales coming from the country’s marques and European brands accounting for 24.9 per cent. Top 10 best selling vehicles in the world  

Change is in the air.Carmakers are starting to realise sky high electric car prices won’t cut it in the long term.Demand is dwindling in the giant European and US markets as the cohort of early adopters are now spoken for and it is becoming more challenging to tempt buyers away from cheaper petrol and hybrid vehicles.In the past few months several car makers have slashed prices on their slow - and not so slow - selling electric cars in Australia.Peugeot cut the price of its e-2008 small electric SUV by more than $20,000 to $39,990 drive-away. Only a few days later the company had sold all its remaining stock and the car won’t be on sale until the updated version arrives early next year.Tesla has slashed the price of its Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan several times since the start of April to $55,900 (before on-road costs) and $54,900 respectively.An entry-level Model Y was $65,400, and the same Model 3 was $61,900 - meaning a $9,500 discount on the Model Y and a $7000 saving on the Model 3.That’s a big discount on the two best selling electric cars in Australia by a wide margin.Nissan has axed about $16,000 off the price of the slow-selling Leaf, which now starts at $39,990 drive-away with the longer range e+ model $49,990 drive-away.Ford announced on Friday cuts between $7000 and $8000 of its Mustang Mach-E electric SUV range.It now starts at $64,990 for the base Select grade, $79,990 for the Premium variant and $97,990 for the potent GT version.Ford already lopped up to $7000 off the Mach-E before it went on sale in December last year.Ford Australia boss Andrew Birkic said: “These price reductions offer even greater value to our customers and it makes these great vehicles an option for more people.”Subaru made a similar move with its Solterra, knocking up to $8000 off the price before a vehicle was even delivered to customers.GWM has discounted its Ora small electric hatchback and Renault has generous deals for its Megane E-Tech EV, too.These EV discounts are no longer an isolated incident and are a direct response to cooling customer demand and increasing competition.Luxury carmakers have been struggling to sell their EVs in big numbers too compared to their petrol-powered equivalents.These trends show that outside of early adopters consumers are finding it hard to justify spending the circa-$20,000 price premium for an EV compared to a petrol or even hybrid models.Sales of EVs were down five per cent in April, but are up 32 per cent for the year. That sounds good until you factor in EV sales were up 130 per cent in 2023.By comparison hybrid sales are up more than 130 per cent this year. Car makers such as Hyundai, Kia and Nissan are adding more petrol-electric versions of their cars to feed this demand.Most states wound back their EV incentives at the start of this year but the Federal Government's very generous FBT exemption on EVs should be spurring higher demand.Carmakers finding it hard to move their EVs now are in for a tough time as a wave of Chinese electric brands are set to wash over our roads in the next 12 months.These include GAC, Leapmotor, Smart, Xpeng, Zeekr and more.China has the tech and manufacturing advantage to undercut conventional cars brands. China is the leading producer of batteries and is the closest to bringing the game-changing solid-state batteries to market.These solid-state packs are considered the silver bullet for mass EV adoption. They are smaller, lighter, more energy dense, faster charging and safer than today’s lithium-ion units.They have the capacity to make their cars cheaper than others and they have insanely short life cycles, meaning they can upgrade and improve their vehicles in much shorter time than legacy carmakers.Help is on the way, though.Established carmakers are now preparing to roll out an array of cheap, small EVs targeted at the everyday driver.Volkswagen is the latest brand to confirm it’ll build a circa-$30,000 EV with its coming ID.1 hatchback.That price puts it in the same ballpark as an entry-level Mazda3 or a fully-loaded Mazda2.Jeep and Citroen are rolling out little EVs at a similar price and Kia will launch the EV3 small electric SUV in Australia next month.Kia and Hyundai both have mini EV SUVs in the works with the EV2 and Casper.These kind of cars will have a knock-on effect and will lead to cheaper used electric cars too, which will again spread the zero-emissions motoring to new sectors.The people have spoken: the only true barrier to EV adoption is the high prices but carmakers are listening and help is on the way.

The Tesla Model Y electric SUV has been a roaring success. It’s the world’s and Australia’s best selling battery-powered car by a wide margin.In 2023, Australians bought more than 28,000 of the electric mid-size SUV and this year it is on track to beat that number with more than 8000 finding a new home through the first four months this year.Its stablemate Model 3 sedan received some pretty significant updates late last year before going on sale at the start of this year and it's likely the Model Y is due for a major facelift too.This is what we know so far about the updated Tesla Model Y.What will power the 2025 Tesla Model YIt’s likely the Model Y will use the same batteries and electric motors as the current version.Tesla is notoriously mysterious with the mechanical details of its vehicles so we never know exactly what’s underneath, but we know the rough numbers.The Standard Range will use a circa-60kWh battery while Long Range and Performance variants will be fitted with a roughly 80kWh pack.The Model 3 – which shares many components with the Model Y – had its aerodynamics finessed to make it as slippery as possible. The Model Y would be inline for similar tweaks that will help extend its range.Expect improvements in driving range of the Model Y Standard from 455km to 470km and the Long range from 533km to about 550km.Tesla doesn’t quote power outputs either but our understanding is the current Standard Range uses a single rear mounted motor making about 220kW and 420Nm sent to the rear wheels.Long Range variants add another motor on the front for all-wheel drive, which lifts outputs to about 286kW and 510Nm reportedly.These figures are unlikely to change.Improved suspension is on the cards, too. The Model 3 scored revised bushings, new front knuckles, frequency-selective dampers and better body baffling to improve the ride quality and reduce noise.Tesla will change the steering ratio to help improve how the car drives, too.Expect the Performance variant (imaged here) to follow the lead of the model 3, with a more significant overhaul to its driving dynamics with adaptive dampers and aero changes likely.What will the 2025 Tesla Model Y look like?Expect similar styling tweaks to the upgraded Model 3 due to the pair’s similarities.This means new slick, thinner headlights and a sharper looking front bumper with added aerodynamic features as seen in the render at the top of the story.There should be T-E-S-L-A lettering on the tailgate and revised rear bumpers and tail lights. The overall silhouette will remain the same as that egg-shape is what gives the car an aerodynamic advantage.It’ll likely have a new rear diffuser and lower rolling resistance tyres to again improve driving range.Inside there might be a few changes, too.Tesla deleted the indicator and gear selector stalk from the steering wheel in the updated Model 3 so those changes will probably make it to the Model Y.Expect indicators to be operated via a button on the steering wheel and the gear selector moved to the central multimedia screen.An eight-inch touchscreen is likely to be added to the second row at the back of the centre console to access rear seat climate controls and entertainment functions.Interior ambient lighting with up to 200 colours is on the cards, too.How much will the 2025 Tesla Model Y cost?This seems to change month by month. Tesla has dropped the price of the current Model Y three times since the start of April and it's anyone’s guess if the company will up it or drop it again in the short, medium or long termCurrently the Standard Range Rear-Wheel Drive variant is priced at $55,900 (before on-road costs) and the Long Range AWD and Performance AWD start at $69,900 and $82,990.Expect a price rise of a few thousand across the range initially at least.When will the 2026 Tesla Model Y go on sale?It is likely the Model Y will follow the same path as the Model 3 with a reveal later this year. Expect the new version to go on sale at the start of 2025 for the Standard and Long Range variants.The Model Y Performance should arrive by the middle of 2025.

The price of a new Tesla Model 3 or Tesla Model Y continues to plummet in Australia, with the seemingly endless series of sticker price reductions now leavings owners who have already bought one scratching their heads.