One week after taking delivery, the interior of my new Model YL was still completely unprotected, so Model YL floor mats were the obvious next job before the first bit of dirt found its way in.
Coating was already done at a detailing shop. I looked at the Tesla accessories plus a few Japanese brands, but the market here is still thin, and what does exist is not cheap. So I ordered my Model YL floor mats from AliExpress instead.
Two months later I have a pretty clear picture of whether that was a good idea.
The Model YL floor mats turn up from AliExpress
About two weeks after ordering, a huge cardboard box was sitting on my doorstep.
As you can see, the box had taken a beating in transit. Classic overseas shipping.
My heart sank for a second, but the contents are mats, so nothing was damaged. You have to accept a bit of this when you order from abroad.
I bought three separate things:
- A two-layer set for rows 1 to 3: TPE tray mats with carpet mats on top (AITESLCAR). Trunk and frunk mats included
- A TPE guard that covers the step under the seats (FUCHEN CARTER)
- A four-piece set of door sill covers and kick panel covers (AITESLCAR)
The mat set was the main purchase. The other two fill in the places floor mats can’t reach. Everything arrived together, so I fitted all of it in one go.
That means every interior photo below shows all three fitted at once — the footwells as well as the black-covered sills.
Covering every floor surface in the car
Laying in the TPE tray mats
Starting with the bottom layer, the moulded TPE mats.
Out of the packaging, the moulding is crisp with almost no smell. That’s the nice thing about TPE — none of that sharp rubber odour you get from cheap mats.
Dropped into the driver’s footwell, it follows the floor shape exactly.
There are no fixings at all. The shape matches, so it simply sits there.
The little nubs across the surface turned out to be there to hold the matching carpet mat that layers on top.
Adding carpet mats on top
Then the carpet layer goes over it.
The driver’s side has a heel pad, and honestly, if you told me these were factory mats I’d believe you.
Being from the same set, they clip straight onto the TPE nubs. No fiddling with alignment — drop it in place, done.
Bare TPE looks a bit cheap, and it isn’t nice underfoot. The carpet on top is what makes it feel like a normal car interior again.
The TPE underneath is the waterproof layer, the carpet on top does the looks. When the carpet gets dirty I can pull just that off to wash it, which is reassuringly low-stakes.
The TPE guard under the seats
The second item, the FUCHEN CARTER guard, is made specifically for the step under the seat rails where footwell mats can’t reach.
The red box shows where it goes.
From the factory this area is bare carpet. It’s exactly where shoes land when someone climbs into the second row, so I’d been eyeing it as the first thing to get filthy.
It follows the contour of the step neatly, with no lifting or gaps. It just looks right.
Door sills and kick panels
The third item, the sill covers with kick panel covers, has actually been in every photo so far.
That black stitched trim in the foreground is it. You can see a big chunk of it in the seat-rail guard photo too.
The back is adhesive tape — peel the backing, press it on. No tools needed.
One tip: do this while everything is still clean. Stick it down over sand or dust and you trap the grit underneath permanently, so noticing later means peeling it off to start again.
Feet hit this trim every time anyone gets in or out, so covering the factory plastic before it gets scratched feels good.
Boot, sub-trunk and frunk
The set included cargo area pieces, so I carried on to the back.
There’s a seatback protector that covers the rear of the third row. With a Model YL you fold the third row down for luggage a lot, so this is quietly very useful.
There’s a dedicated mat for the sub-trunk under the boot floor as well.
There’s even one for the frunk, so literally every floor surface in the car is covered.
Second and third row
The rear rows get carpet mats too, to keep everything consistent.
They’re split to suit the six-seat captain’s chair layout of the Model YL, with cutouts around the seat rails that line up exactly.
Coverage runs unbroken from the door sill through the second row to the walkway into the third row, so I don’t panic when the kids climb through with their shoes on.
Two months on with the Model YL floor mats
I fitted everything at the end of May, and these last photos were taken in early August. So roughly two months.
Short version: no complaints at all.
The best part by far is how easy cleaning has become.
Pull the carpet mats out, give them a shake, all the sand comes out in one go. Anything finer comes up with a quick pass of the vacuum. Because TPE sits underneath, I can be fairly liberal with water without worrying about it soaking into the car’s own carpet.
I genuinely didn’t expect the cleaning side to improve this much.
The shifting I was worried about hasn’t happened either.
Look at the cutout around the seat rail — after two months of getting in and out, it’s still sitting exactly where I put it on day one. Cheap mats tend to get kicked up at the edges, but the two-layer construction may just be heavy enough to stay put.
The Model YL floor mats I used
Here are the three items:
If the listings have moved on by the time you read this, a search for Model YL floor mats will bring up plenty of equivalents.
Wrapping up
The AliExpress Model YL floor mats, together with the guards alongside them, came in well above my expectations.
- The TPE trays fit beautifully, with no smell
- Layering carpet on top gets you close to factory appearance
- Coverage runs from the frunk all the way to the sub-trunk
- Adding the under-seat guard and the sill covers leaves nowhere I’d worry about
- Two months in, zero movement — cleaning is a case of lifting the top layer out
- Far cheaper than sourcing locally
The mat set itself was ¥26,178 (approx. $175). The under-seat guard added ¥9,569 (approx. $64), the sill covers ¥3,323 (approx. $22), so ¥39,070 (approx. $260) all in.
For comparison I checked the Tesla online shop. The all-weather interior liners are ¥35,000 (approx. $235), rear trunk plus seatback liners ¥33,000 (approx. $220), the rear trunk well liner ¥9,500 (approx. $63).
Covering the floor and the boot that way comes to ¥77,500 (approx. $520). There’s no Model YL specific listing yet, so those are Model Y prices as of August 2026.
The AliExpress 13-piece set covers the same ground for ¥26,178 — third row included, frunk included, with a carpet layer on top of the tray.
You do have to accept a battered box and a two-week wait. At one third of the price, though, waiting a couple of weeks feels entirely reasonable to me ^ ^
I’ve fitted a fair few other small things since delivery, so once I’ve lived with them for a while I’ll write up the ones worth having.
The seats got the same budget approach a couple of weeks later, with a set of AliExpress seat covers for all three rows.
This article is also available in Japanese.
