The hotly anticipated replacement for Australia’s best-selling electric car has been spied on public roads 12 month ahead of its official reveal.
The updated Tesla Model Y electric SUV has been spied testing yet again on California roads ahead of its expected unveiling and on-sale date in 2025.
As reported by US site CarBuzz, a single photo of what’s believed to be a heavily disguised 2025 Model Y was seen travelling down a highway in California – the US state where Tesla opened its first car factory – by a Reddit user named sheffield712.
The user said the vehicle was travelling at around 70mph (112km/h) and was moving erratically, suggesting some kind of steering test – perhaps related to Tesla’s autonomous driving systems – as it drove through the Bay Area of San Francisco.
As CarBuzz pointed out, the bulk of the disguise was on the rear of the Model Y – and, based on another Reddit user post made in early August 2024, are there to conceal a full-width light bar with T-E-S-L-A lettering across it in a similar style to the controversial Cybertruck.
Earlier images of what is thought to be the 2025 Model Y – codenamed ‘Project Juniper’ – showed heavy cladding to disguise both the front and the rear of the vehicle.
While the accuracy of the latest images – and the previous shots claiming to be the 2025 Model Y – have not been verified, they show the recent changes to the Model 3 sedan will not be followed when the next Model Y goes on sale.
The Model 3 update – which arrived in Australia in April 2024 after its unveiling three months earlier – was first spotted 10 months ahead of its official reveal.
That suggests the next Model Y – first spied in July 2024 – could be on sale in mid-2025 overseas and in Australian showrooms by the end of next year.
The current Model Y was launched in 2022 and was Australia’s best-selling electric car for the full year of 2023 – with the Tesla Model S in second place – and leads year-to-date in 2024.
It was also the world’s most popular car in 2023 – electric or otherwise – according to Jato dynamics, knocking off the Toyota RAV4 for the top spot.
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