Tesla Model Y review

There are lots of new electric crossover SUVs around right now. But there’s only one Tesla Model Y. This car’s been out in the US since March 2020, but UK deliveries only began at the very end of February 2022 making the whole thing feel like a 1990s movie or PlayStation game. We’re very late to the party on these shores.

Where does it fit in the Tesla range?

It’s Tesla’s fourth four-door, after the Model S big saloon, the Model X big SUV, and the Model 3 small saloon, which the Model Y is pretty closely based on.

In fact, the Y shares three quarters of its parts with the 3. It’s just a bit longer and taller. The Model 3 seats sit on huge plinths for a commanding driving position. Sooner or later, there’ll be a seven-seater option. Likely with rearward facing folding chairs. And while the Model Y doesn’t get the Model X’s ‘falcon doors’, it does inherit its 15-inch touchscreen interface from the 3. And a round steering wheel. Phew.

How big is the battery and how far will that get me?

Tesla does like to chop and change its specs quite often, but for now at least this is really simple: the standard Model 3 is rated on the WLTP test as good for 283 miles, or 331 miles in Long Range Dual Motor guise.

If you upgrade to the Model Y Performance then your range drops down to a claimed 319 miles, but in return power leaps from 434bhp to a massive 563bhp. And even then, a Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 AMG will be defeated by the Y’s instantaneous pace.

How much will it cost?

The standard Model Y costs from £51,990 in the UK (at least it does at the time of writing, Tesla has a habit of mixing things up without warning), while the more appealing Long Range model costs a tenner short of £58k. For the Model Y Performance, you pay the same note shy of £68,000. A few grand between this and the Model 3 at either end of the spectrum, then.

What are the rivals?

They’re multiplying by the week. Chief fodder for the Model Y to chew up and dispatch is the VW ID.4, and its Audi Q4 e-tron, Q4 Sportback and Skoda Enyaq siblings, none of which can get close to the Tesla’s range. Then there’s the much more enduring Ford Mustang Mach-E, and the more design-led Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6.

Mercedes’ EQB is storming the EV segment with seven seats, in which Tesla is tardy in offering in the Model Y, and BMW’s iX3 purports to offer a very straight-bat rival, though it’s compromised by not being based on a bespoke EV platform, which the Tesla of course is.

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Let’s not pretend it’s a surprise that the Model Y is a good car. And it very much is. What’s most interesting is this is the first Tesla we’ve driven where the standout impression isn’t necessarily the acceleration, or the driver assistance tech, or the world-class touchscreen, or even the built-in games and memes.

It’s the packaging. The Model Y is now the poster-car for ‘if you delete the engine, the gearbox, the exhaust and all that fuel tank plumbing, then look how roomy you can make the cabin, look how much storage you can offer in the boot'.

Obviously that’s not as sexy as Autopilot or Ludicrous Mode, but it’s going to make this a great car to live with, before you get to the foolproof charging, frugal real-world electrical consumption, and all the other stuff that makes Teslas genius electric all-rounders. Plus, if the build quality continues on this trajectory, one of Tesla’s real weaknesses against the European old guard will eventually be kiboshed.

It would have been one of the shocks of the century if Tesla had heightened a Model 3 and spoiled it in the process. In short, it has not.

Images: Jonny Fleetwood + Lee Brimble