What comes after the Cybertruck? It’s a moderately important question, especially since Tesla doesn’t seem to believe in the traditional seven-year model cycle. As it turns out, we don’t have to wonder any longer. Assets submitted to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reveal that Tesla’s next big thing is a longer Model Y wearing the imaginative name of Model Y L.
It’s not an earth-shaking development, and it means that someone should probably file a missing vehicle report for the second-generation Roadster, but the Model Y L makes sense when you look at Tesla for what it is beyond the hype: an automaker losing significant ground. Between stiff competition in China from brands like Xiaomi and BYD, a bit of an image problem in Western markets due to polarizing decisions by the man at the top, and the reality that the Cybertruck remains a niche proposition, and you can sorta see why the company’s going with the Taco Bell approach. These ingredients worked really well before, what if the engineers just scale it up a bit and add extra cheese?
While it might be difficult at first to pick out the Model Y L from the standard model, a glimpse of the profile reveals that Tesla’s stretched this thing by 7.3 inches—5.9 of which are found within the wheelbase—and given it an entirely new roofline. Not only is the rear door significantly longer, the peak of the roofline now sits behind the B-pillar, giving the stretched Model Y a more Model X-like silhouette. The base of the rear window has also been moved further back, and the rear window itself sits more upright.
Is it a visual improvement? Well, while the Model Y L looks less like someone stuck a straw in a Model 3 and blew hard, it does have that same suppository look that the Model X has, and there’s a lot of visual mass over those rear wheels. However, attractiveness is probably secondary here, because the stretch is all in the name of filling a gap.
While you can get a third-row seat in a regular Model Y, being stuffed back there may constitute cruel and unusual punishment for anyone over five-foot-six or so due to the rake of the rear glass. In contrast, the Model Y L is reportedly a six-seater that should actually fit six adults thanks to the extra-bubbly roofline, and that’s before we even get into gains in second-row legroom. Long-wheelbase cars are big business in China thanks to their increased size and room, so this is definitely a targeted play from Tesla.
Interestingly, Tesla is giving this thing some extra gusto to go with the added size. According to CarNewsChina, the Model Y L is getting a 142 kW motor up front and 198 kW motor out back for a combined output of 340 kW. Translated to freedom units, that’s 456 horsepower, the output of the pre-facelift Model Y Performance. Due to added mass, don’t be surprised if the Model Y L doesn’t quite keep pace with that model’s 3.5-second zero-to-60 mph time, but it should still be rapid.
Of course, given that we only have basic information from China’s MIIT and not from Tesla itself, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the Model Y L. The two biggest things? Consumer sentiment and price. If potential buyers balk at the proposition of a longer, rounder Model Y, or if it winds up being substantially more expensive than the standard model, it’d likely be too little, too late for a brand that’s effectively thrown away a massive lead. However, the compact three-row electric crossover market is relatively fertile ground, even in China. This might actually work, although we won’t know until it’s on sale and the numbers land.
Top graphic image: MIIT
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Where is the model 3 hatch/wagon?
That’s called the Model Y.
Yes. They almost literally took the Model Y, cut it horizontally, and added 6 inches of sheet metal and then added a hatch.
Carsized.com can give a great comparison of the side profiles along with dimensions.
The Model whY
I still have yet to see any evidence of anyone sitting in the supposed third seat of a standard Model Y. When they announced it I said based on the roofline there’s no way a full sized human could sit back there.
I can get back there and I’m 6’ tall, but it’s… tight. My 12 year old and 6 year old sit back there most of the time and they have plenty of room. And it still has a legit trunk behind that seat.
Its obvious Elon doesn’t give a fuck about Tesla anymore. The world’s richest man somehow cannot find it in himself to spend the money it takes to develop new models. This just looks like the same damned car more or less. Meanwhile there’s like what? 500 EV makers in China and seems like they have a new model every week.
The funniest outcome is Carlos Tavares being put in charge of Tesla.
Or Carlos Ghosn.
They should just have two CEO’s (Carlos Executive Officers) to solve this issue.
Carlos ensues. Brilliant!
Yeah but then Tesla would become a los leader.
Or anyone named Carlos!
Tesla is not a car company. Never was. It’s a R&D enterprise that happens to sell its experiments in technology, machine learning, manufacturing, and materials science. Tesla drivers are dogfooding tech that gets applied to rockets, robots, logistics, and satellites.
Sorry but no – Tesla was and is a car company. Until 2023 Musk was promising investorys 50% sales growth every year through the end the decade. (Which would make them twice as big as Toyota – selling 20 million vehicles in 2029)
Musk and his stans pivoted away from Tesla as a car company when Tesla stopped hitting sales goals.
I’d agree with you on just the “was” part.
It was very considerate of Tesla to facelift the Model Y with the cyber-lightbar at this critical time to visually differentiate the post-plausible-deniability
PZKPFWModel Y from the plausible-deniability version. Saves a lot of people $4 on the “I bought this before he went nuts” sticker.My neighbor had a Leaf and she traded it in a couple months ago for a Tesla, but slapped on a pre-crazy sticker. Liars all the way down.
Yah, there’s a LOT of that going on. Many Tesla owners knew Elon was an egoist/sociopath/world-class-weirdo before they bought their cars, and now that his nature is undeniable, they want to retroactively deflect responsibility for making him even richer.
And sadly, there’s more than a few Tesla owners who just don’t care if he publicly demonstrates white supremacist sympthies or posts anti-semetic tropes, etc…
I haven’t done a count, but in my neighborhood, it’s possible that there are more Teslas in driveways than any other single make of car.
Just like every Apple lover knew Jobs was someone who would have been pinned down as a horrible person too, yet the majority of folks on here love Apple products. Your second paragraph is skewed highly based on news coverage and your (anyone’s) opinion and which way you lean politically. The vast majority of folks don’t care about any of it and just want the most robust EV experience until all other automakers get past their Gen 1 EV launch issues.
Steve Jobs had his issues but he didn’t create an AI that called for a second holocaust and is currently referring to itself as Mecha Hitler.
Yes, we all know Jobs was an a$$hole as a human being. I don’t use Apple products not because of his personality, but simply because I’m past them… I used them for a long time, and eventually moved on to Linux, and now that Windows has been good for several years (since Win 10 for my purposes) I use that.
However, I DO choose to avoid the products/services of certain corporations based on their behavior, so yes, were I in the market for a $40K+ EV, Elon’s behavior probably would impact my decision of what car to buy or avoid.
Musk’s behavior/posts/actions/statements are all well documented by innumerable different sources, so my appraisal of his motivations is hardly ‘skewed.’ I was simply stating known fact(s) about a public figure and if they’re inconvenient for your personal worldview that doesn’t make them untrue.
If you have a Tesla and are happy with it, then good for you. If you don’t for whatever reason, and prefer something else, then good for you too.
There are tons of Swastikars around here. They are driving mobile MAGA hats. I hate this timeline.
I’ve decided modern consumers don’t really care what their car looks like. It also explains the grey scale dystopia. All it needs is a boring color pallet, AWD so people don’t slide off the road into a ditch on sunny days, an iPad duct taped to the dash, Android Auto/Carplay, and some comfort features like heated seats and steering wheels. Oh and gigantic rims in black and low profile tires with no sidewall.
This seems plausible. Certain manufacturers – gm, Subaru, nissan/Infiniti (and Mitsubishi by extension), Toyota/Lexus (except the new Prius, Camry, and Crown Signia), Honda/Acura, and BMW – seem intent upon making the ugliest and most awkward-looking vehicles they can.
Is it to test buyers’ loyalties, especially with the cult-like following some of them have (especially Subaru)? Is it to make a statement? Do the design teams they use take inspiration from the wrong places? Is it an avant garde or even contrarian “F you!” to the public?
Thank goodness we still have some bastions of good design, or at least largely-pleasant and inoffensive without being bland.
That all seems about right.
I suspect that the styling of “boring” (mass-market economy/family) cars is usually centered around looking new above all else, because that’s the main driving force for people buying a brand-new economy/family/commuter car over a nicer, lightly used model. A new car is a status symbol for many people, and manufacturers aren’t blind to that. Futurism looks new, and it looks expensive.
How do you convince someone to buy a 2025 (insert SUV) over a used 2023? You update the light clusters and grille mesh to imitate whatever just rolled out of Stuttgart or Maranello, apply chrome/piano black/brushed aluminium/body-color trim/cladding according to the fad of the moment, and count your money.
It doesn’t matter that the aggressive styling elements of an all-new sports car don’t fit the shape, size or function of your aging-scalable-platform economy SUV, you use them because they’re the latest.
There is a reason that a 3 year refresh and 6 year redesign cycle exists.
2/3rds of new car buyers keep their car 5 years or less and people that buy a new car do not want it to look like their old car.
That tracks. To be more specific, I think they also really don’t want it to look like it could have been made alongside the old car.
By my estimation, the design brief places more emphasis on looking newer (not just different, specifically more modern and more expensive) than the old model than on actually looking better than the previous iteration. This is a lot worse when performance car design diverges from passenger car design, since innovation usually starts at the expensive end of the market.
Look at the 2000s, when passenger cars needed sloped noses to lower drag, while performance cars had big, upright grilles to cool their big engines. Everyone made their grilles bigger to match, resulting in economy cars with huge, leaned-back grilles that ended up either looking like silly mustaches or severe underbites.
I get Ys so often as rideshares that I can’t help but think this is essentially a product of rideshare driver feedback.
I spent the past few years taking rideshare multiple times per day, every day. Every time it told me a Tesla Letter was on the way, I would have to walk around the back (god forbid they uglify it with a front plate) to check the license plate to make sure I had the right Tesla. Their letter names somehow manage to have less than zero brand identity. I still identify them as the expensive one, the expensive fat one, the fat one, and the least bad one.
There are other ugly cars not made by nazis.
Another example of how being stuck to a design theme too long will eventually kill a product (or a company in this case).
This same basic design is almost 20 years old now. The Model S was first shown around 2008, I believe. Just insane. It hasn’t aged as quickly as lot of other designs, but it has certainly aged.
Model YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Ah yes, the brand new Tesla Model Why?
Ahhh you beat me to it
Sir X-A-Lot
Model Y Tho
Model Butt Y (Van Wilder Gif edition)
Remember when all anyone could talk about was how far ahead Tesla was vs everyone else? Good times…
The most boring person you know: “Looks great! Good job, Tesla!”
Fantastic writing here Thomas. Props.
I hope the ass end looks better IRL.
The ass end might, but I don’t think the front end will
I totally forgot about that aspect. It appears they gave it some underbite to ease the proboscisness (sic) of the light barred front end.
You also made me realize that the front end is from a compact car, but that back is is from a full-sizer. I personally don’t think it works very well.
Many manufacturers have historically had “L” extended wheelbase cars in the Chinese market, due to the higher volume of personal chauffeurs resulting in owners sitting in the rear seat of otherwise ‘lower market’ vehicles. One of my favorite examples in the past was the Cadillac ATS L!
Exactly this! Wondering what took Tesla so long. Might be useful engineering for a future midsize CUV (which, like any other Tesla, I will disparage people for buying.)
Musk could have done a two box SUV and a Maverick sized normal looking yet Teslaized pickup both on the Y platform and sold a LOT of units without spending all that much on tooling or development. Instead they have the dud CyberTruk and the blimpy rig shown in this article.
This – so much this.
It is what would have been done if Tesla was run by someone that understand platform sharing.
As Tesla no longer sell the X and S in China due to tariffs, it makes sense for them to create the Y L for the Chinese market. I forecast many Y L models in the black car service segment.
This is the face of a car that is over its own existence and it isn’t even in production yet.
Even though this car is boring, lazy, and devoid of any styling or build quality, at least the company’s owner is an insufferable Nazi douchebag.
At least he’s funding a youth driving program, though. Teens use their smartphone to report their parents’ driving habits, which in turn earns them points towards a discount on a future Tesla that will undoubtedly be approved by their new foster parents, just as long as they play nicely with their new half-sibling, X1zr402kevin.
Kind of a modern take on Adolph’s contemporary Jos Stalin. How very modern.
But does he get to play golf either the Dali Lama?
With Autocorrect must die an agonizing death
If the word “derp” were a car.
That rear aspect looks like somebody stuck a Schrader valve in the back end and inflated to 300psi.
…it would be everything since the S.
The current crop of EVs, especially ones that have the goldfish blob look like the ModelY, always seem like they get ruined by front number plates – I’m surprised that they’ve not tried to insert those into a pocket that more closely streamlines the airflow on it.
We don’t have front plates here, so ironically all the models (except S, and now the redesigned Y) always looked blank at a creepy level, like an uncanny valley for cars.
OTOH, most people still opt for a personal/novelty front plate of some kind. My favorite Model 3 has “Farm Use Only” on the front. Some Tesla owners developed a sense of humor over time, which is nice.
I didn’t know Torch had a Tesla.
Definitely an improvement, but only 20% of the way there. I’d rather see something more like the Lucid Gravity, a more upright cargo area and D-pillar. I feel like that’s a worthwhile tradeoff for losing a couple hundredths on the Cx metric, and maybe 20 miles shorter highway range.