Tesla Model Y

The only one that shows its working

Open the Model Y page and the prices are simply there. $58,900, $68,900, $74,900, $84,900. No postcode, no dealership, no form.

Choose a state and you get a drive-away price. Then open the breakdown and you get this, to the dollar:

Eight states and territories, and a toggle for personal or business registration.

Set that beside the two vehicles that outsell it. Ford's Build and Price returns a postcode-based estimate and no list price. Toyota shows "DRIVEAWAY FROM $" with the figure blank until you nominate a dealership, and its footnote admits the figure is built on the maximum dealer delivery charge without ever saying what that is.

Tesla names its delivery fee: $1,400, fixed, on the invoice.

The line on a new car contract with no rule behind it is named only by the company that does not use dealerships. Make of that what you like, but when you are quoted a drive-away price by anybody else, $1,400 is the number to hold it against.

What the itemisation teaches you about everybody else

Look at where the stamp duty sits. It is charged on the vehicle subtotal of $60,700, which already includes the $1,400 delivery fee and the $400 order fee.

Delivery is inside the duty base. So an inflated delivery charge is not just paid, it is taxed. At Queensland's rate that is an extra 2% on top; in Western Australia it is 6.5%.

That is true of every car sold in Australia. It is visible on exactly one manufacturer's website.

The same Model Y, five states

Identical car throughout: Model Y Premium RWD, Pearl White, 19 inch wheels, all black interior, no options.

$2,889 between Brisbane and Perth. The car is identical. Tesla's share of the bill is identical. Every dollar of that gap is the government and the insurer.

A Perth buyer pays $5,107 where a Brisbane buyer pays $2,218, for the same vehicle, on the same day, from the same company. Western Australia charges 6.5% of the whole value once a car passes $50,000, not 6.5% of the amount above it.

We checked every one of these against the law

This is the first table on the site where the arithmetic can be verified line by line, and all five agree with the published state rules exactly:

• Queensland, electric at $2.00 per $100: $60,700 gives $1,214.
• New South Wales, $1,350 plus $5 per $100 above $45,000: $2,135.
• Victoria, green passenger car at $8.40 per $200: $2,553.60.
• South Australia, $60 plus $4 per $100 above $3,000: $2,368.
• Western Australia, 6.5% of the whole value: $3,945.50.

Two of those are worth knowing in their own right. Queensland puts electric cars in its cheapest duty band, $2.00 per $100 against $3.00 for a four-cylinder and $3.50 for a six. And Victoria treats any car emitting 120g/km or less as a green passenger car, which pays $8.40 per $200 at every price and so never reaches the luxury step at $80,809 that an ordinary car does.

South Australia is the cheapest place in the country to insure one. Its CTP is $275 where Victoria's is $607, because South Australia lets you choose between five insurers and Victoria has one.

The tax line, and a question most buyers guess at

No Model Y pays Luxury Car Tax, including the $84,900 Performance. We tested it rather than assuming, because the answer is not obvious.

The Performance has a vehicle subtotal of $86,700. That is well above the ordinary LCT threshold of $80,809 and below the fuel-efficient threshold of $91,661. Tesla's breakdown returns Luxury Car Tax $0, which settles it: an electric car is treated as fuel-efficient and gets the higher threshold.

A petrol car at that same $86,700 would owe roughly $1,767.

This matters more than it looks, because the fuel-efficient test changed on 1 July 2025 from 7.0 to 3.5 litres per 100km. That pushed ordinary hybrids down to the lower threshold. An electric car consumes no fuel at all, so it clears the test outright.

The thresholds, what counts as the price and the three ways a car escapes the tax are on Luxury Car Tax, explained.

The tie, and there isn't one

This is where the Model Y separates itself, and it is the opposite of both utes.

Five years, unlimited kilometres, unconditional. Tesla moved to this term for cars delivered from January 2026.

Battery and drive unit, eight years, at 160,000km for the Premium RWD and 192,000km for the Long Range, Performance and L, with a minimum 70% retention of battery capacity over the period.

No servicing condition. Tesla's own words: warranty repairs must be done at a Tesla Service Centre, but "for any non-warranty repair or maintenance, you may use a Tesla Service Centre or visit your preferred non-Tesla vehicle service centre."

Compare what the other two ask of you. Ford's seven-year warranty requires every scheduled service at an authorised Ford dealer. Toyota's seven years covers the engine and driveline only, and requires logbook servicing with Toyota. Both are seven-year commercial relationships sold as a feature. Tesla asks for nothing.

And it transfers. The warranty follows the car to the next owner. A conditional warranty does not transfer cleanly, because the second owner inherits whatever the first owner's service history did to it.

Read the 70% again though

That capacity floor is a limit, not a promise. Degradation down to 70% is not a defect. On a 466km car that is a guaranteed floor of about 326km after eight years, and you would have no claim at 330km.

Nobody else publishes a number here at all, so Tesla is ahead for saying it. Just do not read it as a guarantee of the range you bought.

What it can actually tow

Tesla publishes the figure, on its shop page rather than on the car's page.

1,588kg braked, in Tesla's own Australian listing for the Model Y tow package: a tow bar and 2 inch hitch receiver "capable of towing up to 1,588kg". The package is $1,970, fitted only at a Tesla Service Centre, with installation included and non-refundable once done.

Then the line that matters more than the number:

"Tesla cannot supply or fit a brake controller. The maximum tow capacity without a brake controller is 750kgs."

So the 1,588kg exists only if you source and fit a brake controller somewhere else. Tesla sells the bar, states the capacity, and tells you plainly it will not supply the part that unlocks it. Without one you are towing 750kg, which is a box trailer. Ball mounts are not included either, because they depend on the trailer.

That is a real finding and not a complaint. It is disclosed, it is specific, and it is the kind of thing that turns a $1,970 accessory into a $1,970 accessory plus an auto electrician.

The tow ball limit is published, and it is in the owner's manual. Tesla's Australian manual is readable online before you buy, which is more than the RAV4 offers, and it gives the maximum tongue weight as 159kg on the five seater and Performance.

The six seater tows less the fuller it gets, and Tesla prints the trade-off rather than leaving you to find it. With six aboard the capacity is 1,043kg, against 1,588kg for the five seater.

That table is also the one place Tesla contradicts itself. It gives two different capacities for the same five passengers, 1,542kg and 1,293kg, without saying what separates them, and its top row reads 3,500 lbs as 1,558kg where the five seater table reads the same 3,500 lbs as 1,588kg. Take the six seater figures to a dealer and have them confirmed against your build.

The payload arithmetic still cannot be completed, and the reason is specific. Tesla publishes four weights for the range, 1,921kg to 2,088kg, each labelled "Weight" rather than kerb or tare, and no Gross Combined Mass on the specification page or in the owner's manual. It does name the mass limit: the manual's Vehicle Loading page calls it the Technically Permissible Maximum Laden Mass, the ADR term for Gross Vehicle Mass. Then it says where to find it:

"This information can be found on two labels attached to Model Y. Both labels are visible on the front driver door pillar when it is open."

So the number exists and it is on the car. Open the driver's door on the demonstrator and photograph the pillar label before you order the tow package. That is faster than asking.

For scale, a RAV4 AWD tows 1,500kg and a HiLux 4x4 tows 3,500kg.

Source: shop.tesla.com/en_au Model Y / Y L Tow Package and tesla.com/en_au/modely, read 24 October 2026; Model Y owner's manual, Australian edition, Towing and Accessories and Vehicle Loading pages, read 25 October 2026.

Running cost

Tesla publishes an itemised maintenance price list, free, ungated, to the cent. For a Model Y produced after 2024:

There are no oil changes, no spark plugs, no fuel system work and no emission checks, and Tesla says brake pad replacement is rare because regenerative braking does most of the slowing.

Over five years at 15,000km a year, taking only what Tesla actually recommends, that is two cabin filters, seven tyre rotations and one brake fluid check: about $1,075.

For contrast, on each manufacturer's own published figures, a Ranger is $1,995 of capped servicing over the same five years and a HiLux is about $3,050, because it is serviced twice as often and the cap runs out after three years.

Energy. The Green Vehicle Guide puts the annual energy cost for a Model Y rear wheel drive at $736, calculated at 14,000km a year from average residential electricity prices. Over five years that is about $3,680. The Guide lists rear wheel drive entries between $736 and $771 depending on the build code.

Five years all in: about $4,755. The cheapest of the country's five best sellers to run, and by a wide margin: a RAV4 Hybrid is about $7,630 and a HiLux about $15,265 on the same basis.

Charge on a public fast charger and the energy figure is materially more; charge off your own solar and it is materially less. We use the Guide's number rather than our own arithmetic so every car on this site is costed the same way.

Two costs that are easy to miss. Charging equipment is not included: a home charger is $800 and a mobile charger $600. And Full Self Driving is a $149 per month subscription, which is $8,940 over five years if you keep it.

The wait

Tesla publishes a delivery estimate on the first screen, which neither Ford nor Toyota does.

It currently reads November 2026 to January 2027. On 15 October it read October to November 2026, so it moved out by roughly a month in eight days. Treat any published estimate as a snapshot, including this one.

One thing to switch off before you compare

The price page offers a checkbox labelled "Include Est. Petrol Savings", which takes $6,000 off the displayed figure.

It is off by default, which is to Tesla's credit. But a price shown net of savings that have not happened yet is not a price, and it is not comparable to any figure you will be quoted on any other car. If you are comparing, leave it unticked.

The same applies to the trade-in bonus of up to $2,000 advertised until 31 December 2026. That is a trade-in term, not a price.