2025 Tesla Model Y old vs new comparison: What’s changed with Juniper?

No electric car in Australian showrooms has recorded more deliveries over the past three years than the Tesla Model Y, so when its maker treats it to a major upgrade, it’s a big deal.

It is the same vehicle underneath as before – so it’s a facelift, not an all-new model. But, there have been considerable changes to the design, interior, features and driving experience to give it a fresher feel.

Plenty of early Model Y buyers will be approaching the end of their lease this year, and may be looking to upgrade. Has enough changed with the 2025 Model Y to stay with Tesla – amid controversy surrounding the brand – or has the competition moved on?

There are some obvious differences – the Cybertruck-inspired front end, for one – but we’ve lined up the old and new Model Ys for a side-by-side comparison of everything that’s changed.

Yes and no, depending on which version you order.

There are initially two models in the Tesla Model Y line-up – the Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) and Long Range All-Wheel Drive (AWD) – with a Performance AWD due to follow later this year.

The first new Model Ys to go on sale were the Launch Series editions, with premium paint, larger wheels, suede interior accents, puddle lights, and a few other items for $4500 extra.

Those are no longer available, leaving the regular versions – the RWD priced from $58,900 plus on-road costs, up $3000 on the outgoing version, and the Long Range AWD priced from $68,900 plus on-roads, $1000 less than before.

Both prices are significantly down on the Model Y’s price two years ago, when the RWD was $69,300, and the Long Range AWD was $82,300, with fewer features and shorter ranges.

Here we’re testing the Long Range variants of the new and old model, each optioned with $2600 Ultra Red paint, bringing the new and old recommended retail prices (RRPs) to $71,500 and $72,500 respectively.

The RRPs quoted exclude on-road costs such as stamp duty and registration, as well as Tesla’s $400 order and $1400 delivery fees. Drive-away prices for the new and old models stand at about $77,300 and $78,300 respectively.

Shared features between old and new models include a 15.4-inch touchscreen with navigation and music streaming, matrix LED headlights, power-adjustable heated front seats, heated outboard rear seats, a glass roof, hands-free power tailgate, dual-zone climate control, and camera-based front and rear parking distance sensors.

As for what’s new, read on to find out.

The Model Y’s body structure and proportions haven’t changed, but there is new styling front and rear to set it apart.

Its new front fascia is marked by split headlights, with the matrix LED headlight beams placed lower on the bumper, and a full-width daytime-running light bar inspired by the Tesla Cybertruck electric pick-up higher up.

The new bumper deletes the fog lights and introduces a sleeker look, with air curtains on its edges, while the bonnet is flatter for better aerodynamics, and now lacks a Tesla ‘T’ badge in all markets bar China, where it is a legal requirement.

Tesla quotes a 20 per cent reduction in wind noise, confirmed to include new acoustic glass – but likely also thanks to a aero improvements from the new bonnet.

A front camera has been added low on the bumper, for a view of what’s in front of the car when parking. It joins existing side and rear cameras, but there is still no top-down camera view of the vehicle, as in many other new cars.

New wheel designs are offered – the 19-inch Crossflow and 20-inch Helix 2.0 – which Tesla claims are “some of the most efficient designs” it has created, while a new Glacier Blue colour has been added.

The mirror caps have been tweaked, now with an indent – likely for better aerodynamics.

At the rear, there’s a new “indirect” light bar that works by reflecting its light downward onto a panel, then outward, rather than a simple LED light that simply projects outwards.

Tesla says it is a world first, and one of the largest automotive tail-light bars of any kind at 1.6 metres wide.

The old model’s low-profile rear bumper and single-piece tailgate were simple to make, but its design meant that a dent from a low-speed crash – whether being rear-ended in traffic, or reversing into a pole – could require a complete replacement of the costly sheetmetal.

It has now been split into three pieces – an upper portion around the window, the integrated spoiler, and a lower section – for less complex replacements, as well as a deeper plastic lower bumper now home to the licence plate, rather than on the tailgate.

The rear window aperture looks larger than before, but the shape of the opening behind the glass has not changed.

Overall, the new Model Y is slightly longer than before, yet retains its general proportions as a not-too-large but still family-friendly SUV.

It may look similar at first, but nearly everything inside the Model Y has changed with its 2025 facelift.

Nearly everything you touch is new, from the steering wheel and seats, to the design of the centre console, dashboard, door panels, and even the amount of storage on offer.

Buyers can still choose from synthetic leather-look upholstery in black or white, but the dashboard trim – a cheap-feeling woodgrain-look plastic with black seats, or white plastic with white seats – has been replaced by a new grey fabric fitted with either seat choice.

The materials used around the cabin feel softer and higher quality, with new metal detailing on the speaker grilles on the door panel, as well as around the dual wireless phone chargers.

Build quality also seems to have improved. The old Model Y we tested for this comparison only had 2000km on the odometer when we picked it up, but there were plenty of squeaks and creaks throughout the interior, none of which are present in the (700km odometer, still near-new) 2025 model.

The door closes with a more reassuring thunk, and the front door releases have also changed – the electronic button is larger and more obvious, while the manual door release is now labelled with a warning triangle to dissuade passengers from pulling it, which can damage the window over time.

The 15.4-inch touchscreen has not changed for the new model, aside from thinner bezels, and the software is the same, but there are a few new tricks to correspond to the 2025 Model Y’s extra features.

Among them is control for the ambient lighting that runs around the base of the windscreen and onto the doors. It debuted in the related Model 3 sedan, but following feedback from customers that the light would reflect onto metal trim below it, and then onto the windscreen at night, Tesla has better integrated the LED strip into the dashboard.

There’s also new ultra-wideband technology for a better connection with the phone key, while for drivers who use the keycard to start the car, that is now placed on one of the wireless chargers to initialise the vehicle, rather than at the base of the armrest.

Unlike the latest Model 3, Tesla has kept the indicator stalk, but it is a new design. There is no more choice of a three-flash action or a regular indicator activation. Rather, you pull the stalk and the car uses its cameras and clever software to decide when to cancel the blinkers, based on its position in the lane and the angle of the steering.

You could opt in to use this software in the outgoing Model Y, but it’s now the only choice. Should the software get it wrong, you can flick the stalk in the opposite direction to manually cancel the indicators.

While the indicator stalk has been retained, the gear selection has moved to a slider on the touchscreen. It’s fiddly to use on its own, but it is saved by new Auto Shift software that anticipates your movements at low speed and can automatically select the next gear.

Consider a three-point turn. As the driver slows down, turns across the street and approaches the opposite kerb, the car will figure out what they’re doing – prompting them to steer in the opposite direction, place their foot on the brake pedal, and let the car automatically shift into reverse.

That will continue throughout the manoeuvre, and the system also supports parallel parking, as well as other low-speed scenarios.

It’s surprisingly accurate, and works most of the time, though you need to maintain full attention 100 per cent of the time, as it can’t always anticipate your next move – and as good as the software is, we can’t help but feel it’s a solution to a problem Tesla created.

New front seats for 2025 are more comfortable than before, trimmed in synthetic leather-look material that’s now perforated – so it breathes better – and augmented by ventilation joining the existing heating function and power adjustment.

There’s a new steering wheel with a slightly thinner rim and more tactile-feeling dial controls, including a user-customisable shortcut via the left roller. Adaptive cruise control is now managed through the right roller dial, while control of the lights and wipers has also moved to the steering wheel.

The driving position feels a touch lower, but it’s not a big difference, while visibility remains as good as always out the front and side, although limited out the rear.

Tesla has added a new coating to the glass roof, which is claimed to reflect seven times more solar energy than before. The cabin is markedly cooler than before, and the air conditioning does not need to work as hard to maintain its temperature.

Storage space has improved, with a deeper area under a sliding tray near the front occupants’ knees, more room under the centre-console armrest, and a retractable cover for the cupholders to hide them when not in use.

The door pockets remain large, and Tesla has extended the felt lining within them to cover the inside face, which was previously hard plastic, to prevent small items clattering around. The glovebox is still very small and is opened through the touchscreen, but it now locks magnetically rather than with a latch.

Many features are carried over – a heated steering wheel, dual-zone climate control, keyless entry/start, and more – but Tesla has deleted one of the USB-C ports leaving just one up front.

The Long Range’s 13-speaker sound system has been upgraded to a 15-speaker system – both excluding the subwoofer – though the RWD has lost the 13-speaker stereo in favour of a nine-speaker system.

Space in the back was one of the old Model Y’s strong suits, and it has been improved for 2025.

Excellent knee room, head room and toe room have been retained, but a longer seat base equates to improved under-thigh support – a key weakness of the outgoing model. It’s not perfect, but it is markedly better than before.

The seats still do not slide, but the (still heated) outboard positions now recline electrically – rather than the manual latches over passengers’ shoulders – with buttons on the sides of the seat bases.

Folding the rear seats is easier too. The outgoing model used switches on the sides of the boot to lower the seats but could not raise them. The electric mechanism allows the new car’s second row to be raised, not just lowered, from the boot.

You can also do this from the touchscreen, which is handy if you’ve pulled up at a direct-to-boot bay at the supermarket and don’t want to get out of the car.

Tesla says boot space has been reduced by 32 litres to 822L, but it’s hard to notice a difference. It’s still a cavernous space, with its pros – enough room to fit a carry-on suitcase, as well as the cargo cover in the new model – and cons, in the form of the large storage pockets on the side that your groceries can fall into if the shopping bag tips over.

The power tailgate is now hands-free when the phone key is in your pocket, while the under-bonnet storage area – said to be one litre smaller than before – has gained a drain plug for use as a mobile Esky.

There is still no puncture solution of any form – even a tyre repair kit costs extra – while the same goes for home charging cables.

As mentioned, the 15.4-inch touchscreen is largely unchanged for the new model – so we will keep this section brief.

Most of the car’s functions continue to run through the screen, from the climate controls to moving the mirrors, and displaying the vehicle’s speed.

There’s a steep learning curve, and it is more distracting than turning a dial or pressing a button. But once you get your head around it, it becomes second nature – and there is a voice-control system to avoid touching the screen, which many customers swear by.

There is still no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, but there are apps such as Spotify and Apple Music for audio, plus Bluetooth with phone and message portals, FM and digital radio, and Google Maps-powered navigation – with speed camera alerts and excellent EV route planning – to make up for it.

Over-the-air downloadable software updates have improved, and will continue to improve the system over time, but it must be said many features – such as music streaming – require a monthly subscription to be paid after an initial trial period.

Tesla’s phone app is still excellent, offering control of the car’s locks, lights and horn, remote tracking, cabin pre-conditioning, and a phone-as-a-key function.

Joining the driver-assistance roster for 2025 is blind-spot monitoring technology, which now integrates lights into the front door pillar speakers – inherited from the Model 3 – which illuminate as a vehicle enters the Model Y’s blind spot.

It joins blind-spot cameras – which appear on the touchscreen when the indicators are active, and glow red when an obstacle is detected – as well as warning chimes.

There’s also a front parking camera for the first time, but still no bird's-eye view – just separate front, side and rear camera views, as well as a graphic visualisation of what’s around the car.

As with the outgoing car, the new Model Y’s parking distance warnings run through cameras rather than ultrasonic sensors. They are not too bad at judging distance accurately in dry conditions, but they are not as accurate as ultrasonics, and the gap grows in wet weather.

The rest of the safety suite is unchanged, with adaptive cruise control, lane-keep and centring assist, rear cross-traffic alert (through cameras, again), traffic sign recognition, a driver attention warning, and autonomous emergency braking.

Buyers need to order the $5100 Enhanced Autopilot pack to add assisted highway lane changes/overtakes and hands-free parking, while the $10,100 so-called ‘Full Self-Driving’ package is available to order, but still isn’t unlocked for use on Australian roads.

There are seven airbags – including one between the front seats to prevent occupants’ heads clashing in a severe side impact – plus tyre pressure monitoring.

There are no changes to be seen here, the new and old Tesla Model Y covered by the same four-year/80,000km vehicle warranty, as well as eight years of coverage on the high-voltage battery pack, offering distance caps of 160,000km for the RWD and 192,000km for the Long Range.

Maintenance is “condition-based”, so the car indicates when it needs to visit a workshop – or have a Tesla technician visit your home or office to attend to the car – rather than needing to adhere to set servicing intervals.

Driving range has increased for the 2025 Model Y, from 455km to 466km in the RWD, and from 533km to 551km in the Long Range AWD, according to European WLTP lab testing.

In the Long Range, the battery is unchanged – at an estimated 75kWh usable – so the range boost has come through reduced energy consumption, down from 16.9kWh/100km to 15.8kWh/100km claimed.

The RWD has seen a boost in battery capacity, from 60kWh to 62.5kWh. We’ve yet to test that model, so we will focus on the Long Range AWD in this review.

That drop in energy use translates to the real world. On a comparable 110km/h highway range test route, we observed just 14.4kWh/100km in the new Model Y compared to 16.0kWh/100km in the outgoing model.

It equates to an indicated – and remarkable – highway range of 520km in the latest model, based on its battery capacity, compared to 470km in the old car.

The tests were conducted on different days, but were driven as similarly as possible.

We saw a similar difference in energy use in around-town driving. You’ll notice the energy use we recorded in mixed driving is higher – that’s because it includes some testing of each car’s performance and handling, which bumped up the numbers.

DC fast charging at up to 250kW is claimed for both cars, and the charging curve is also unchanged, touching that peak figure for a split-second after plugging in at a low charge level before quickly tapering off.

That’s the reason why the new model charged slightly faster from 10 to 80 per cent on a 300kW Tesla Supercharger in our testing, completing the task in 32 minutes and 35 seconds, rather than 33 minutes and 40 seconds.

In the old model, we reached the Supercharger with 3 per cent battery left, compared to 6 per cent in the new car. It means the old car passed its 250kW maximum slightly sooner, so by the time we started the stopwatch at 10 per cent, it was on the back foot.

In identical conditions, the two cars should charge identically. Both cars’ batteries were pre-heated on the way to the charger.

AC fast charging at up to 11kW is included in both cars, but charging cables for connecting to a home power point – or a charger at a shopping centre that doesn’t have a cable attached – cost extra through the Tesla shop.

If the upgrades we’ve discussed so far haven’t sold you on the new Model Y, the improvements to the driving experience might.

The RWD has gained more power for 2025 – now 255kW vs 220kW, according to Australian government documents – for a claimed 5.9-second 0–100km/h acceleration time one second quicker than before.

The Long Range we’re testing here is unchanged on power, with dual motors developing 331kW combined in Chinese documentation – or 378kW in Australian information – much like the outgoing version.

Tesla claims the new Long Range is 0.2 seconds quicker in the 0–100km/h – now 4.8sec, down from 5.0sec – but it’s hard to tell on the road. It’s still seriously quick for a family SUV, with the instant response we’d expect of an EV and excellent overtaking power.

The accelerator pedal is well calibrated – so you can extract the precise amount of power you want – and the transition from power to the electric motors’ regenerative braking when you’re trying to hold a certain speed remains segment-leading.

Regenerative braking settings have been updated for 2025. In the outgoing model, there is only one intensity for the regen – it will slow down at the same rate – but drivers can choose what happens at low speeds, between Creep (like a petrol automatic car), Roll (like coasting in neutral) and Hold (coming to a full stop without needing to touch the brakes).

Hold mode has been standardised for 2025, but there’s now a choice between Standard and Reduced settings for the strength of the regen, for drivers who prefer the car to wash off speed a little slower when the accelerator pedal is released.

Owners of the old model will notice the biggest improvements in how the latest Model Y absorbs bumps.

The ride in the 2024 Model Y is, in a word, firm. It was not too stiff for our tastes, but it was never particularly supple, reacting sharply to big bumps and transmitting more of expansion joints and ripples in the road into the cabin than a family SUV should.

It is better in this mid-2024-built Ultra Red test car than the last Model Y we tested – a 2022-built example – as it runs a softer suspension tune rolled out during 2023, but it’s still not great.

The new model is a revelation. It has retained a sporty character, and there’s a taut edge that ensures drivers still have a sense of what’s happening under them, but it’s much more supple, ‘muting’ the effect of sharp bumps, and striking a great balance between comfort and control.

It is thanks in part to new frequency-selective dampers, which react differently – and with a different level of firmness – depending on the size and frequency of the bumps the wheels hit.

It allows the Model Y to remain settled over undulations at speed – without feeling ‘floaty’ or too soft – but still soak up speed bumps with poise and control, and iron out ripples in the tarmac at city speeds. Big bumps can still deliver a sharp reaction, but it’s much improved.

The updated Model Y is also a quieter car to drive. There’s less tyre roar, particularly on coarse-chip country roads, as well as less wind rustle, but it’s the significant reduction in suspension noise that’s especially noticeable.

Whereas the outgoing car has a tendency to clatter and creak over sharp bumps – not helped by its less-than-perfect build quality – the 2025 version is a more refined experience.

The steering is still quick and responsive, but a bit more lock (2.4 turns, rather than 2.0), and less nervousness just off the centre point equate to a more natural, less video game-like feel. All three weight settings are still relatively heavy, which some drivers may like, and the turning circle is still large.

Handling is similar in new and old models, with quick steering, a firm brake pedal, and the surety of all-wheel drive lending the Model Y a sense of athleticism, but keen traction-control software and eco-focused Hankook tyres mean it’s no performance SUV.

Tesla certainly hasn’t dropped the ball with the updated Model Y.

It has fixed nearly all the weaknesses of the outgoing model. It is more supple over bumps, more natural to steer, quieter on rough roads, more comfortable and luxurious inside, and better equipped.

That’s all while using less energy, driving further on a charge, and costing less to buy (in Long Range form).

It’s still not perfect – no Apple CarPlay, Android Auto or an instrument display may frustrate some buyers, we’d like some buttons inside the cabin, the warranty is still quite short, and the new touchscreen-based gear shifter is not as intuitive as the previous stalk.

But the improvements for the latest Tesla Model Y should not be overlooked, and turn a great electric car into an excellent one.

If you’re an older Model Y owner that’s in the market for a new car, the updated version of Tesla’s best seller should be at the top of your consideration list.

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner

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