CarBrandLogos archive · Tesla · 2020

TeslaModel Y

The Model 3 raised a few inches, and briefly the best-selling car on earth.

Photo: © M 93 · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

The story

A defining chapter in Tesla history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Tesla Model Y, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Model Y is the least original vehicle Tesla has built and by some distance its most successful. It shares the great majority of its components with the Model 3, adds a taller body with a hatchback and an optional third row, and dispenses with the complicated doors that had made the Model X difficult to build. Tesla was open about the parts sharing, because the point was manufacturability.

Tesla 3 + Y · Smnt · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

Launched in January 2020, it landed in the segment where the global market had concentrated: the compact crossover. That, combined with production at four plants across the United States, China and Germany, let Tesla scale it faster than any of its earlier models. In 2023 it was reported as the best-selling vehicle in the world across all powertrains, the first electric car to hold that position.

2020 Tesla Model Y Performance · DestinationFearFan · CC BY-SA 4.0

In production

Its ubiquity has changed how the car is perceived. What was a statement purchase when the Model S launched is now, in several countries, simply the sensible default for a family that wants an electric car, sold in enough volume that it has become invisible in traffic. Rental fleets and company car schemes took large numbers, which accelerated that shift.

2022 Tesla Model Y Performance AWD · Calreyn88 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

Manufacturing innovations went in alongside it, notably very large single-piece castings replacing assemblies of dozens of stamped parts, which cut cost and complexity while making repairs after a rear impact considerably more awkward. A longer Model Y L has since been added, and it now absorbs the role the Model X used to hold at the top of Tesla's SUV range.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

2020–present

Designer

Franz von Holzhausen

Body

5-door SUV

Technical specification

The Model Y, in detail.

Production: January 2020 – present
Class: Compact crossover SUV ; Mid-size crossover SUV (Model Y L)
Body style: 5-door SUV
Layout: Rear-motor, rear-wheel-drive ; Dual-motor, all-wheel-drive
Designer: Franz von Holzhausen
Assembly: United States: Fremont, California (Tesla Fremont Factory; Fremont Factory); Austin, Texas (Gigafactory Texas) ; China: Shanghai (Gigafactory Shanghai) ; Germany: Grünheide (Mark); Grünheide (Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenbu
Manufacturer: Tesla, Inc.