2026 Tesla Model Y: What's It Like to Live With?
The updated version of the world's best-selling EV joins our fleet for a 20,000-mile test
| Miles Driven: | Average Electricity Consumption (kWh/100 miles): |
| 2,091 | 38.7 |
Latest Highlights
- Tesla gave the Model Y a big refresh for 2026
- Updates include new styling, better tech and a more refined ride quality
- How will this EV hold up after 20,000 miles? Let's find out
What do you want to know about?
What We Got and Why?
• Our test vehicle: 2026 Tesla Model Y Launch Series
• Base MSRP: $59,990
• MSRP as tested: $61,380
• What we paid: $68,732
There's no getting around it: The Tesla Model Y is a massively successful product. Not only was it the best-selling electric vehicle in the world in 2023 and 2024, it was also the best-selling SUV, full stop. For a relatively new product (the Model Y only launched in 2020) to make such a global impact is, frankly, unheard of — especially considering it's an EV. This speaks volumes about the Model Y's importance to not only to Tesla but to the automotive industry as a whole. That's why we bought a new one for our One-Year Road Test fleet.
What did we get?
We paid $61,380 out the door for our 2026 Tesla Model Y Launch Series. The Launch Series is currently the only trim available for the new Y, and it's essentially a fully loaded Long Range model that includes Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) hands-free driving assistant and all-wheel drive.
The new Model Y's updates largely mirror those that the Model 3 received last year. The exterior styling is even more dramatically updated, with a Cybertruck-esque front light bar (fortunately the only bit of Cybertruck design language here) and a more angular look overall. Tesla also redesigned the taillights and incorporated something we've yet to see on another vehicle: A hidden LED element shines down on a silver panel across the trunk lid, resulting in a light bar-like effect without actually using, well, a light bar. The new exterior styling likely won't be everyone's cup of tea, but at least Tesla has more greatly differentiated the Y's design from the 3's.
The redesigned interior is just about identical to the Model 3's, save for one crucial difference: There's still a turn signal stalk. Whereas the Model 3 pivoted to unintuitive steering wheel-mounted turn signal buttons (which we really, really don't like), the Model Y keeps a physical stalk. Unfortunately, Tesla's annoying on-screen gear shift is present here, and in the limited driving we've done so far, we've already found ourselves in the wrong gear on multiple occasions despite using the system as designed.
Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purpose of evaluation.