Tesla launched the new Model Y in China and Australia. Heres what you need to know.

Tesla's long-awaited "Juniper" refresh of the Model Y has just launched in China. We knew the car was on its way due to numerous sightings of (mostly camouflaged) prototypes being tested on the roads globally, and there's still no word on when it's coming to the U.S. or Europe, but it's now available in most of Asia, including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Korea. It's also available in Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. There's no official announcement as of this writing: Neither Tesla, Tesla Asia, or CEO Elon Musk tweeted anything about the new model. But we can go through the official specs and images to give you most of the details, and that's exactly what we did. SEE ALSO: Polestar's Tesla Model Y rival gets price and launch date for North America New Tesla Model Y: What is it, and what's with the "Juniper" name? This is the facelift Model Y, the first major refresh of Tesla's most popular electric car since it launched in 2019. The "Juniper" name was just a codename, and it's not being officially used anywhere on Tesla's website, so the new version is still simply called the Tesla Model Y. However, Tesla is labelling the currently available Model Y as "Launch Series," and calling it a limited release. This is probably mostly about availability as the company ramps up production, but you do get certain perks if you opt for the Launch Series version; more on that below. New Tesla Model Y: Exterior design changes Oh, is that a camera in the front bumper? That's a first. Credit: Tesla While the new Model Y isn't a complete departure from the old design – the car is still roughly the same shape and size as before – it does represent a major design overhaul. And it's a big deal, because this was at one point the world's most popular car (electric or otherwise), meaning there's a very large user base waiting to see what Tesla has done with its family hauler. The changes include completely new, super-thin headlight