TESLA

Model Y Juniper production at Giga Shanghai next month to be followed by a six-seater version in Q4

It is not yet clear if the six-seat Model Y will be exclusive to China, but the Model Y Juniper that will start rolling off the conveyor belts there in the next few weeks will certainly make it stateside.

Tesla is reportedly getting ready to announce and release the long-awaited Model Y Juniper facelift as soon as next month, as previously rumored, with mass production start in Giga Shanghai first, just as it happened with the Model 3 Highland refresh.

This comes from a source that has built credibility with insider scoops about many a Tesla release plan in China. The Juniper launch info comes tucked in a report detailing how and why Song Gang, director of the Gigafactory in Shanghai, is leaving Tesla and moving on to a local automaker.

According to the factory sources, the new Model Y Juniper that will be churned out en masse at Giga Shanghai in January offers exterior and interior design changes similar to the ones present on the Model 3 Highland refresh, i.e. more aggressive headlight styling and more minimalistic interior. It could also sport a larger 95 kWh battery capacity, upgraded drive motors, and Tesla's newest FSD hardware kit dubbed AI4.

To those alleged Juniper specs, one can add the Cybertruck's 800V powertrain and 48V low-voltage architecture in the upgrade mix, but the exact range on a charge with the new battery pack will remain unknown until the EPA runs its tests.

The Juniper refresh, however, will reportedly be only one of the two new vehicles that Giga Shanghai will start producing in 2025, with the other one being none other than the rumored six-seater Model Y odd bird indeed. This configuration is popular locally, so the six-seat Model Y version could remain a China exclusive, but it is reportedly not scheduled for production before the last quarter of 2025, so the focus will be on the regular Juniper refresh first.

If the Model 3 Highland history is any indication, it could be months before the Model Y Juniper facelift makes it from China to the US, though. The Highland went on sale in China last October, and only appeared on the US market this January. Besides the obligatory crash tests, one of the reasons for the delay was said to be the HW4 kit, as Tesla was simply not ready with its mass production at the time, both in terms of components, and in terms of software that takes advantage of it.

This is no longer the case, so the Model Y Juniper release in the US could very well happen in Q1. That could still be too late for its future owners to take advantage of the current federal tax credit of $7,500 apiece that is reportedly going to be on the chopping block once a new White House administration takes charge.

Another hint that the Model Y Juniper launch stateside is pending for Q1, are all the discounts and purchase incentives that Tesla introduced this quarter to entice those buyers who are on the fence waiting for the refresh in the US. There is a record low 0% APR financing rate offer, for instance, as well as free Supercharging and FSD trial or transfer until the end of the quarter.

It remains to be seen if the new Trump transportation administration will be able to chuck or rewrite the Inflation Reduction Act in its direct EV tax credit part as soon as it gets governing. If turning those intentions into legislation takes a while, the early Model Y Juniper batches may still qualify for the federal tax credit, while it lasts.

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