Tesla has been seen testing their upcoming Model Y refresh, codenamed Project Juniper, in Europe for the first time.
The camouflaged Model Y was spotted in Mataró, Spain by Eduardo Arcos, who shared two photos of the car driving along a local highway on the social media platform X. Although the pictures are not the best quality, and while there has obviously been no confirmation from Tesla that this is the refresh version, there are two factors pointing to that being the case.
Earlier this year the first test unit of Project Juniper was spotted in California. Much like sightings of the new Model 3 last year before it launched, this test vehicle had the same camouflage hiding new features on the front and rear, as you can see in the photos below.
The other important thing about this vehicle is the license plate. On the current Model Y, even for European versions with longer license plates, it is always located on the trunk lid. On this vehicle however, the license plate has been moved down to the rear bumper.
This matches what we saw in leaked photos of the Model Y refresh in July. One of those photos was of the rear of the vehicle, and while it was taken from a close angle, we can see the trunk lid has no indentation or screw holes for a license plate bracket, suggesting that those leaked photos were of the real thing, and this sighting is of the refresh.
The last time we saw Tesla testing the new Model 3 before its launch was also in Europe, when it was spotted in Germany just a few days before the new car debuted in China. Given that Tesla has said the new Model Y won’t be released until some time in 2025, we are obviously not that close a release of Project Juniper, but the fact that Tesla is now testing in Europe is a good sign that the program is progressing.
