Tesla has evidently landed an EPA approval for a new variant of the Model Y all-electric crossover. A new 279-mile version of Tesla’s most popular vehicle appeared on the EPA’s Fuel Economy website last evening, confirming the vehicle has been tested by the agency.
Teslarati recently reported that Tesla was awaiting EPA approval of the Austin-built Model Y, based on a company statement in the Q4 2021 Shareholder Deck. We reported that Tesla had received approval for previous Model Y variants, but not the new configuration that was set to be built at Gigafactory Texas. This model would equip not only Tesla’s new 4680 battery cells but also the structural battery pack. However, the new Model Y variant, according to FuelEconomy.gov, only equips 279 miles of range, which seems to indicate that this is not the 4680-equipped Model Y that Tesla would be delivering to customers initially. InsideEVs initially reported on the appearance of the new Model Y variant on the Fuel Economy website.
In January, Tesla announced that it had produced its millionth 4680 battery cell at the Kato Road facility in Northern California. While this is an accomplishment Tesla was obviously proud of, it wasn’t necessarily confirmation that the 4680 cells were ready to be equipped in a massive number of Model Y vehicles. 1 million 4680 cells would produce around 1,200 Model Y vehicles, according to Industry researcher Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
The 279-mile rated Model Y that appeared on FuelEconomy.gov could be an LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) cell, which Tesla and other automakers have started to use for its Standard Range vehicles.
Tesla applied for and received approval for new Model Y in February
The EPA received an application from Tesla on February 2, according to agency filings. The EPA then granted a Certificate of Conformity for this application on February 16, which could be an indication that Tesla has received approval to begin delivering this new, mysterious 279-mile Model Y variant.
Interestingly, Tesla has also applied for another EPA certification of a Model Y variant. The application was submitted on February 23, but has not received a Certificate of Conformity, which would allow the car to enter the stream of commerce, from the EPA as of March 13.
As of now, Tesla does not have a 279-mile variant of the Model Y listed on its design studio. Only the Long Range All-Wheel-Drive and Performance variants are available to order. However, it could begin to offer the variant in the coming days, especially if the company plans to roll out a new Standard Range configuration that could equip LFP cells. Tesla made this move with the Model 3 in August 2021. As Tesla was battling high order volume for the Model 3, the company communicated to customers awaiting delivery that they could switch to a different pack it uses in Europe and Asia. This is the LFP pack has been available in Shanghai-built Model 3s since 2020. Because of its sensitivity in cold weather and other situations, the pack offers lower range ratings. The LFP Model 3 only has 253 miles of range.
CEO Elon Musk explained the advantages of the LFP pack last year. “Our intent with this pack is that product experience is roughly equivalent between nickel & iron,” the CEO said. “I’d personally slightly opt for iron pack, as it wants to be charged to 100%, whereas nickel prefers ~90%.”
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.
The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.
On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.
Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD
It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.
It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something
There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla has finally released its Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite for older cars that equip the Hardware 3 or AI 3 chip, which have not been able to handle the newest versions of the company’s driver assistance software.
Tesla officially started releasing the v14 Lite suite to owners in the Early Access Program last night. The company’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said that the rollout will continue over the next few weeks. The build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of an AI3 car.
🚨 Tesla is releasing v14 Lite for AI3 owners who are in early-access
This will give AI3 cars the ability to experience new FSD features like parking preferences. https://t.co/pp6Q5FOKoz pic.twitter.com/tqexMB8SVy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 29, 2026
It also includes a variety of new features that were available to AI4 cars running v14, including:
- Start Self-Driving from Park
- Arrival and Parking Options
- Speed Profiles
The release is highly anticipated because those owners with AI3 vehicles were early adopters into the FSD platform and were promised that their cars would be capable of achieving Full Self-Driving.
However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted during the company’s recent Q1 Earnings Call that these vehicles would not be capable of achieving unsupervised Full Self-Driving, which is what Tesla had originally said.
Owners were not pleased with this answer, or the idea that their commitment to buying the suite outright for thousands of dollars would not yield the ability to drive without operating the car. Tesla gave some solutions for this, including a discount on a new car, or an upgrade to an AI4 or AI5 self-driving computer and new, upgraded cameras.
Tesla owners do not seem pleased with these options, as they require giving the company more money.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that Tesla came through for owners here by releasing v14 Lite before the end of Q2, something it had promised owners during the previous Earnings Call. Tesla has had trouble keeping up with timelines, but this is a big achievement for the team.
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features
