A Model Y Tesla vehicle is seen in a Tesla showroom in New York City on February 16, 2025. (Photo by … More
Sales data shows modest numbers for Tesla’s updated Model Y in the month of April, though it’s not clear if it’s a trend or just a snapshot as Tesla ramps up production of the refresh of its most popular vehicle.
New retail registrations for the 2026 Model Y for the month of April in the U.S. were 18,246 vehicles, a drop of 43% year over year, according to S&P Global Mobility. Tesla officially discontinued the older version of the Model Y in the U.S. in mid-March. “It appears as though the new Model Y, at least through April, has failed to provide a lift,” said Tom Libby, an analyst at S&P Global Mobility in an email.
Tesla Model Y sales were down 43% year over year in April, accorinding to S&P Global Mobility.
Cox Automotive also shows declining numbers for the first three months of the year. Sales of the Model Y, the best-selling EV in the U.S., fell 34 percent in the first quarter to 64,051 vehicles from 96,729 vehicles in the first three months of last year, according to Cox Automotive. Tesla Model Y sales also fell sequentially dropping from 85,506 in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to Cox.
A drop in sales was not totally unexpected as consumers held off on purchases as they waited for the 2026 (the official model year) Model Y, which began deliveries in volume in April. And as Tesla retooled its factories and temporarily stopped production of the Y. But competition is also heating up. General Motors’ leading EV brands, Chevrolet and Cadillac, showed a large uptick in sales in the first quarter and Ford’s Mustang Mach-E has seen perennially strong sales.
Musk sees demand rebound, role in Robotaxi rollout
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla is experiencing a “major rebound in demand” during an interview on CNBC last month. He cited a “global factory changeover for the model Y” that “required factory shutdown across the world,” as one of the reasons for the slowdown in the first quarter. The Model Y is expected to take a leading role in the rollout of the unsupervised Full-Self Driving, aka Robotaxi, in Austin, Texas later this month. The Robotaxi service will initially involve a small fleet of Tesla-owned Model Y vehicles operating in geofenced areas – not unlike Waymo’s service. Musk says this will scale up quickly, however.
