2024 Tesla Model Y facelift due mid next year – report

A facelift for the 2024 Tesla Model Y electric SUV may be less than nine months away – after a similar update to the related Model 3 sedan earlier this year – according to a new report.

News agency Bloomberg reports Tesla has begun "preparation work" to ready its Shanghai, China factory for a "more obvious" exterior and interior update to the Model Y.

Production "may start as soon as mid-2024", according to the outlet – which could translate to Australian showroom arrivals by the end of next year, if the arrival timeline of the recent Model 3 update is a guide.

It is sooner than the October 2024 estimate published in a report by news agency Reuters earlier this year.

MORE: 2024 Tesla Model Y facelift due next year with exterior, interior upgrades – report

Citing insider sources, Bloomberg claims the facelift will include "much more obvious exterior and interior changes" than a minor update for the Model Y in China in October, which brought ambient interior lighting, new dashboard trim, a tweaked wheel design, improved performance for the base model, and a slightly longer driving range.

It is expected influences will be drawn from the recently introduced Model 3 facelift, which brought restyled front and rear fascias, new seats with ventilation, a brighter touchscreen, retuned suspension, new wheels and tyres, additional sound-deadening material, and other tweaks.

The Model 3 update also saw the controversial deletion of the steering wheel stalks – relocating the indicators to buttons on the steering wheel, and the gear selector to a slider on the central touchscreen.

MORE: 2024 Tesla Model Y updated in China with longer driving range, plans for Australia unclear

According to Bloomberg, production of the current Model Y is planned to pause "for around a week during the New Year holiday for a partial upgrade" to the assembly line.

Further pauses will be required closer to the start of mass production, the news outlet reports.

The Tesla Model Y is on track to become the world's best-selling car in 2023, and is Australia's top-selling electric vehicle so far this year.

Tesla has reported 27,418 examples as sold to the end of November 2023 – accounting for one in three electric cars sold this year, and placing it sixth in the overall new-car sales race.

Bloomberg reports the planned update to the Model Y comes amid increased competition globally, including many new rivals from Chinese manufacturers.

The Model Y was introduced in the US in early 2020, but it did not arrive in Australia until the second half of 2022, built in Tesla's Shanghai, China factory.

Reuters reported earlier in 2023 that the Model Y facelift is codenamed 'Project Juniper', following the Model 3's 'Project Highland' code.

Both are reportedly references to alcohol – with Highland a type of whisky produced in Scotland, and juniper a plant used as flavouring for gin.