[13] With at least 2.16 million units delivered since its start of production up to December 2023, the Model Y is also the most popular electric vehicle of all time.

[18] In 2017, a Model Y silhouette was teased to Tesla shareholders at the annual general meeting in June.

[19] Musk also announced that the Model Y would be produced in a new factory, as the Fremont plant would not have room to accommodate another production line.

[24] On March 3, 2019, Elon Musk published multiple tweets, announcing the unveiling event and confirming some specifications.

[7][37] In November 2020, Tesla signed an agreement with LG Chem to supply battery cells for Model Y production in China.

[38] On October 7, 2020, Musk tweeted that Giga Berlin Model Y would get single-piece rear and front frame cast, structural battery pack, and new 4680 cells.

[39][40] Vehicles manufactured from April 2021 no longer include radar for adaptive cruise control,[41] and those from May the same year lack lumbar support on passenger seats.

[42][43] On July 25, 2021, CEO Elon Musk revealed that Tesla was planning to release an updated design for the Model Y by the end of 2021.

[45] On January 10, 2025, Tesla launched a redesigned version of the Model Y in China, with deliveries set to begin in March.

The new Model Y features a full width light bar as its headlight and tailight, as well as a touchscreen for passengers in the rear seat.

This "Launch Series" special edition includes a 320-mile range battery and Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance technology, “Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” which is typically a $8,000 upgrade.

[48] The most noticeable changes to the exterior of the new Model Y include a sleeker front design with a more streamlined nose and a thin light bar across the hood.

[53] Some electric vehicles from other manufacturers, including the Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe, BMW i3, Jaguar I-Pace, Audi e-tron, and Kia Niro, had already implemented heat pumps.

[61] In February 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation over phantom braking in these new vehicles.

Injecting molten aluminum into a cast and having robots pull out the molded metal allowed Tesla to combine several manufacturing steps.

[68] In August 2020, Tesla started assembling the world's biggest casting machine for this purpose, which the company called the Giga Press.

[76] On January 7, 2021, Tesla once again released the Standard Range RWD configuration, alongside the seven-seat option for the Model Y.

[77][78] Tesla stopped taking orders for the variant in February 2021, making it the shortest-lived configuration offered for the Model Y.

[79] After reports emerged in February 2021,[80] on December 6, 2021, Tesla formally notified customers who had pre-ordered the Long Range RWD that their chosen configuration is no longer available in the U.S.

[91] Orders for the Model Y in Australia opened on June 10, 2022, with initial configurations offered were RWD and Performance AWD and imported from Gigafactory Shanghai.

[95] On January 1, 2021, Tesla started selling the Model Y in China, and it sold out its planned production (an unknown quantity) for Q1 2021 within 6 days.

[128] The Model Y was also touted as the leader in its class, but reviewers note that competition is rising with numerous alternatives hitting the market from other manufacturers.