Tesla has officially reintroduced the seven-seat version of the Model Y in the United States. While it currently holds the title of the cheapest three-row model in the company’s American lineup, there is a catch the size of a small child.
This isn’t the Chinese-market Model YL with its six seats and a generous seven-inch wheelbase extension. Tesla simply bolted two extra chairs into the trunk of the standard chassis. Unless your passengers are under the age of five or lack lower limbs, that third row is functionally decorative. A move Tesla tried before with the pre-facelift model that went about as well as a screen door on a submarine.
Social media users on X were quick to roast the announcement, calling the setup “useless” without the longer wheelbase found overseas. If you still want to punish your rear-seat passengers, the seven-seat option costs $2,500 and is exclusively available on the Premium All-Wheel Drive trim, which starts at $48,990.
Beyond the seating drama, Tesla’s online configurator reveals several “stealth” updates for the 2026 Model Y. The exterior has finally ditched the last vestiges of chrome for a matte black finish across all trims. Inside, the Premium and Performance models now feature a moody black-gray headliner and a bumped-up 16-inch touchscreen (up from 15.4 inches). However, Tesla is still gatekeeping the best tech: only the Performance trim gets the Quad-HD resolution and the highly coveted Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) capability.
Even then, Tesla’s version of V2L, a major selling point for modern EVs that lets you power appliances from the car, is remarkably stingy. It requires a special adapter and caps output at a measly 2.4 kilowatts. For a company that considers itself the industry leader, Tesla remains strangely hesitant to let its owners actually use their massive batteries for anything other than driving.
