This year has been a controversial one for Tesla.

Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump on 20 January the Elon Musk-owned brand has been rarely out of the headlines thanks to its founder's attendance at the VIP event, and his highly-publicised endorsement of 'The Donald' and MAGA.

Some Tesla owners have been plastering 'I bought this before Elon went crazy' stickers on their EVs, Trump tried out a Model S on the White House lawn, Tesla stocks nosedived 39 per cent and Musk and Trump have since had a very public breakup – and we're only in August.

Among the noise, Tesla has introduced a product it hopes will give the brand a much needed sales and popularity boost; the new Tesla Model Y.

The Model Y has been the crowning success of Tesla, becoming both its best-selling model and in 2023 the world's best-selling car – the first EV to manage this. And yet it's taken the Texas-based EV maker five years since the Y first landed on our shores to update it's hero car.

The new Model Y arrived in January, and since then Daily Mail Motoring Reporter Freda Lewis-Stempel has driven both the Launch Edition and the Long Range Rear Wheel Drive version to see whether the new Model Y is an improvement on the outgoing version, and crucially whether it can turn the tides favourably for Tesla?

What are the differences between the old Tesla Model Y and the 2025 Tesla Model Y?

Without too many spoilers, the latest Model Y has been updated outside, inside and across its technology offerings.

The exterior marks the biggest change: it's been redesigned with a new front end inspired by the Cybertruck and Cybercab, and features slimmer adaptive headlights, a new lightbar and blanked-off angles.

The rear now has C-shaped LED taillights and a full-width reflecting light bar, along with 'TESLA' letting and again a more buffed look.

Tesla says the exterior has been beautified for 'exceptional aerodynamic efficiency' with less drag and low-resistance tyres to enhance range. On the surface this gives the new Y a chiseled and sophisticated look compared to the bulbous old Y.

It might not sound like a radical makeover, but in the world of Tesla these visual changes are as surprising as your friend with the long, blow-dried locks rocking up with a sharp, French-girl chic bob.

The interior has also had both tech and material upgrades, and there are range extensions across the battery options too. But we'll come onto those.

Interior space and practicality – is it still a family-first car?

The Model Y's new interior and old interior would make a good spot the difference because so little has changed visually. It's still the big, clean, crisp and somewhat stark cabin it used to be, it's more that there's been an improvement in quality and comfort.

The noticeable changes are that ambient lighting has been added, along with an eight-inch touchscreen for rear passengers which has its own Bluetooth, Wifi, and microphones for voice commands and phone calls.

The front 15.4-inch touchscreen remains the same but Tesla has brought in new software updates including one that allows you to use your Apple Watch as the car key.

The front seats are now ventilated – a blessing on the 31-degree weekend I was driving around Sussex in the RWD – and there's sun reflecting glass which also helps in the summer. Front and rear heated seats are a plush (clearly) winter feature. 

The seat redesign makes the already comfy chairs that bit more supportive – like the car seat equivalent of a perfectly firm mattress.

Tesla's brought in 20 per cent road noise reduction thanks to new acoustic glazing and softer fabric on the dash and doors and there's very little noise making it's way into the cabin at all, which made the many motorway miles I drove extremely relaxing.

Slightly surprisingly the 2025 Y has 20 litres less interior space than the outgoing model. Luckily though you don't notice that as the person packing the car because there's still 2,138 litres between the frunk and boot and the rear seats now fold completely flat, at the touch of a button.

And passengers front and back still have ample space, no matter how tall. Neither my 6ft or 6'2 friends had anything bad to say, quite the opposite in fact.

One key difference between the old and new Y is that the new Y has one stalk on the steering wheel. 

The new Model 3 brought in the idea of a stalkless wheel, and to say it has been unpopular would be putting it gently. So Tesla has kept the indicator stalk but ditched the gear selector for the 2025 Y, with the gear selector now found on the touchscreen instead.

Do I love it? No. Is it at least better than the stalkless 3? Yes.

All in all the Model Y interior has always been a huge selling point, and it remains just that in the new version – even more so.

What is it like to drive?

Both the AWD and Long Range are very quick – Tesla made EV instant acceleration famous – but the AWD is 1.3 seconds faster over the 0-60 sprint.

The Long Range I drove for around a week, the AWD only for a weekend - the reason being that I needed as much range as possible and the Long Range offers 387 miles on a single charge compared to the Launch Edition's 353 miles.

The Model Y has never been as fun to drive as the Model 3, nor does it deliver the same handling, but there is a slight improvement on the old version Y, although it still heaves a bit over uneven road surfaces, and overall has a firm ride.

I've always likened the Y to driving a go-kart but its probably more like a dodgem in how dart-y it feels. The driving position is a bit odd too, you're perched high up but there's a lot of dash and bonnet in your view.

What infuriates me, as is the case in any EV with no drivers display, is that I have to look across constantly to know what speed I'm doing. It's impossibly hard to not end up speeding because of this. Just a small drivers display – that's all I'm asking for.

The one-pedal drive though is a highlight; I barely used the brake pedal and the heavy regenerative braking keeps the range well topped-up.

The high-quality cameras make overtaking and manoeuvring in tight spaces stress free and generally you feel confident in your spacial awareness in the Y. Tesla has some of the best driver and safety assists in the business.

Plus the range is impressive and it is really effortless to drive on long distances and excels as motorway cruiser.

It's not a shining star of electric SUV driving, but it's definitely a solid choice.

Pricing and ranges – which Model Y is right for you?

The Y arrived in Launch Edition form – the most expensive and the one in our walkaround video. That came off the production line with a hefty price tag of £60,990 and with a claimed range of 353 miles, a top speed of 125mph and 0-60mph in 4.1 seconds.

There's now a Rear-Wheel Drive, the Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive I drove, and a Long Range All-Wheel Drive version.

These will cover 0 to 60mph in 5.6s and 311 miles on a single charge, 0 to 60 in 5.4 seconds and 387 miles and 0 to 60mph in 4.6 seconds and 364 miles respectively.

The cheapest is the Rear-Wheel Drive Y which starts at £44,990. The Long Range RWD jumps up to £48,990 and the Long Range AWD price bumps up again to £51,990.

Charging speeds are just as fast as Tesla owners are accustomed to with the new Model Y Launch Series able to charge up to 250kW, which will give you 172 miles in 15 minutes on a Supercharger.

For comparison though the new MG IM6, which I drove around the same time and goes head-to-head with the new Model Y, offers a 0-62mph of 5.4 seconds and a range of 388 miles but for around £1,000 less - it costs £47,995. It also beats the Model Y's rapid charging speeds because it can ultra-rapid charge up to a staggering 396kW. 

So how is Tesla doing? Tesla sales and popularity 

Sales have been low since the beginning of the year, with BYD selling more EVs in Britain than Tesla for the first time in January: 1,614 compared to Tesla's 1,458 cars.

Then BYD sales in Europe were up 58 per cent in the first three months of 2025, while Tesla's were down 41 per cent in France, 55 per cent in Sweden and Denmark, nearly 50 per cent in the Netherlands and 12.5 per cent in Norway during the same period.

This was when early investors called on Musk to go.

Despite Musk once laughing at BYD, the Chinese car giant has been a problem for years.

It became known as the 'Tesla killer' as far back as 2023 when it dethroned Tesla as the biggest EV manufacturer in the world, and has been pummeling Tesla by bringing out models that directly compete - from the BYD Seal against the Model 3 to the Sealion 7 against the Y.

The summer months of 2025 have been filled with tales of Tesla stocks plunging – June saw $150bn wiped off its share price after Trump Vs Musk spat erupted. 

Then UK sales plunged by 60 per cent in July, with the blame split between Elon Musk's involvement in the White and with hard-right European parties, Tesla's aging car line-up and tougher competition from BYD and other Chinese EV giants.

At the same time a poll from EV website Electrifying.com unsurprisingly found that three in five drivers are put off buying a Tesla because of Elon Musk.

Tesla has tried to pin some of its poor sales on inventory issues, telling This is Money that low volume of registrations in the month of April were due to the company selling out of its UK-spec Model Ys, and the first deliveries of the facelifted Model Y not beginning until the start of May.

A spokesperson told us: 'Due to this, numbers reported by SMMT and others will predominantly reflect Model 3 deliveries, with a small amount of Model Y.'

However, July deliveries don't reflect any of these issues and registrations are still poor. While there's still time for new facelifted Y to improve Tesla's sales in the UK so far the EV hasn't had had the lift hoped for.

Cars and Motoring Verdict: Can car buyers separate the EV from the man who created it?

On the surface, Tesla's issue is that it's an image-based brand. And its image has gone to the dogs. 

It's been a pioneering brand for electric car adoption, and over time its image issues might dissipate, but go deeper and there's a more complicated problem to deal with.

Tesla no longer offers anything so radical, so special, so different to the competition that its cars stand out from the competitive EV crowd – the new Y included. There's no huge step up from the old version, it mainly just looks better.

The Y is surrounded by EV SUV competition and not just from BYD. There are new SUVs that offer faster 0-60s (MG IM6), have plusher Scandi interiors (Volvo EX40), are better to drive (Polestar 3), deliver faster charging (Hyundai Ioniq 5), and have cheaper price tags (Renault Scenic). And none of them come with a 'toxic' CEO.

I've had many a fabulous journey in a Tesla and would again. I enjoyed having the new Y in to drive and appreciated its range, comfort and Supercharging. But in the end, I don't want to have put a sticker on my car saying the person who made it is 'crazy'.

Do you?