The Model Y now starts a good deal lower than it used to, which turns the first question of the order page into a real decision rather than a formality.
The gap, in dollars
Edmunds’ Model Y page, updated August 8, 2026, lists the Standard at $39,990 excluding the destination fee, the Long Range at $46,380 and the Performance at $57,490. It puts EPA-estimated range for the base trim at 321 miles. So the step from Standard to Long Range is roughly $6,400 — real money, and the single biggest lever on the configurator.
Those figures exclude destination, taxes, title and registration. For how the total assembles, see what Tesla’s destination and order fees actually cover.
Who the Standard is right for
If your driving is the ordinary kind — commuting, errands, the occasional weekend trip — the cheaper trim is not a compromised car. A 321-mile rating covers roughly a week of average driving between charges, as we worked through in how many days one charge actually covers, and home charging makes the difference between trims mostly invisible day to day.
Who should spend the extra
Range matters more the further you routinely drive in one go, and more in cold climates where real range drops below the rating. If you road-trip often, the longer-range trim buys fewer stops rather than a different car. Our Model Y trim comparison goes feature by feature.
One rule holds regardless: buy the range you need on your ordinary week, not the range you’d want on your two biggest trips of the year. Supercharging exists for those.
A walkthrough of the cheaper car
Kim Java went through the lower-priced Model Y and what it does and doesn’t include:
Trim contents and prices both move — her walkthrough is a snapshot, and the current configurator is the authority on what a given trim includes on the day you order.
Photo by Saksham Vikram.