Tesla Model Y review: New electric SUV test in Australia – is it worth stepping up from Model 3? 4K

Those of you who are sticking around, though i bet youre here, to find out whether this car can possibly live up to its own hype. Now, of course, im going to share with you what i found in my time with the car were lucky enough. That were one of the first outlets in australia to have a drive, but before we do remember, to check out the full written review over at carsguy.com dot, a u at our ev guide site section where we cover all things: ev, not just the model y were Going to start with the first and probably the most important thing about the model, wire and thats its pricing and features lets get into it. The before on roads, price tag of just over 70 000 doesnt seem too far above the model. 3.. The entry level model y also has slightly less range than the equivalent model 3 at a wltp rated 455 kilometers more on this later. Meanwhile, the top spec performance variant adds a second motor on the front axle and has a larger battery boosting range to 514 kilometers. It also scores 21 inch, wheels, lowered suspension and aluminium sports pedals, otherwise it shares the same standard gear as our base y, which includes 19 inch, wheels, vegan leather interior trim and the brands signature 15 inch. All encompassing tablet display, as well as heating for every seat, led headlights, a panoramic glass roof, dual zone, climate control and a powered tailgate.

Our car had optional paint valued at fifteen hundred dollars, as well as the alternative. Black and white interior trim also valued at fifteen hundred dollars overseas. The model y can be optioned with seven seats costing around the equivalent of four and a half thousand australian dollars, although this is not yet available in the australian market. Speaking of ordering, if you want one of these, i hope youre willing to wait while elon musk has promised to expand right hand, drive production for now. If you order one of these cars theres almost a 12 month waiting list to get one, the model wire shares. The same aesthetic as the rest of the tesla range being sleek and aerodynamic if a little anonymous, the lack of frills on the outside play into its silicon valley, vibe, almost like an iphone, you can drive form, does come with function, though, with the curves on the Exterior of the model y helping it have a very trim, drag coefficient, something which is more important than ever in the electric era. Its face is nearly identical to the model 3, but its side profile has this kind of contemporary coupe suv style with the descending roofline and flicked up built in spoiler. Now i find the rear three quarter of the model y, its most awkward angled. The way the boot lid ends really high here just creates an expanse of panel work in this region, and this tall window pane here creates some visibility issues from the inside, which well look at later again.

Tesla are kings of this minimalist design with just one big screen and no other displays or buttons cluttering things up now, ive got to say that there is something very appealing about this paired back minimalist design that the model wire shares with the model 3. theres. No extra instrumentation or buttons or cables to clutter anything up in here it just does feel like youre in some sort of silicon valley, tech store and thats, something really appealing for the automotive scene. Not much of this has been done before it does come with its share of drawbacks, having moved everything into just the single operational display, which well talk about a little bit later, although adjustability is very tech, heavy as well, you go through the screen, and even this Wheel can be adjusted using these little control panels on the on the wheel here, which is kind of cool, and the seats are both electrically adjustable in the front and the heated as well, and they come in this kind of vegan leather trim, which is spongy and Quite comfy and surprisingly supportive as well now one thing i do have to say is: i wouldnt pick the optional interior that this car has its called the black and white interior option and it trades away the open pore wood for this kind of plastic finish in The door here and across the dash and these seats are really stark white as well, which i dont feel like is going to age as well as the black leather option, so thats just something you might want to keep in mind.

Now the main difference between the model y and the model 3 is how high off the ground you see it, and that gives you a commanding view of the road which i think gives the model y quite an advantage from a user perspective. It just gives you a better idea of where you are at any given time unless you sort of peer down on things and thats why people buy suvs. After all, visibility out the front is really good, but, as i was alluding to before, visibility out, the back is not as good because theres that large partition that splits the glass roof and that really tall boot lid and all that leaves you with, is a little Letterbox aspect to see out the back, so visibility is not as good in that direction, but, as i mentioned before, everything in this cabin is pretty comfy and its really spacious, too. Im 182 centimetres tall heaps of room for my head here. The floor. Unlike the model, 3 is perfectly flat in the model 3, its so close to the ground that theres actually a little cut out for the pedals, so that your feet have somewhere to go to still facilitate the large battery under the floor. But here in the y, its perfectly flat – and that actually goes a long way to making it feel bigger on the inside surprisingly its wide as well and theres plenty of storage in this cabin. Before i talk about that storage, though i should mention this screen now, the software on it is excellent, its nice and close, so that most of the functions are quite easy for you to touch, but i will say, while it all looks good and functions really well, While were sitting still here, whats, not as good, is while youre driving some of those touch controller elements are really small and moving the speedometer all the way over here, its not as though cars havent done this before, but its, never so good for usability.

I dont like that. I have to move my eyes all the way away from the road just to see how fast im going so a bit of a negative. There looks good doesnt work as well as it could now. Storage lets talk about that so theres, a large bottle, holder and bin in the door. There theres two more in the front here: a huge storage area that reaches all the way under this front area, where youd normally have a transmission in a different kind of car and two wireless charging pads here. Its really rare to have two so thats nice and stops you from having to clutter up this interior with cables. As we mentioned before, the center console box is nice and softly padded and, as you open it up as well, theres a second large storage area which goes all the way under there as well. So really, this cabin for storage and space is excellent. Lets go. Take a look in the back okay, so the back seat is one of the key areas where the model y is much better than the model 3 and its simply down to space theres. Just so much of it in here im behind my own seating position, again: 182 centimeters tall and theres plenty of room for my knees here, theres plenty of room for my head to this glass roof which ive got to admit, looks hugely impressive as well. But, interestingly, one area that the model y has over almost every other car that ive been in is that in the back seat you can place your feet under the seat in front which goes a long way to making it feel even bigger and thats.

Thanks to that really low floor in this car, you can adjust this back panel here up and down a little bit and in terms of amenities. Youve got a large bottle holder in the door, with a small bin as well pockets on the backs of the front seats, dual adjustable air vents, two usb c ports and a drop down armrest here, which is extra wide compared to the model 3, which has two More bottle holders in it nice boot space, is an interesting story for the model y behind the second row theres a massive 854 liters on offer, although this does include the unusually large underfloor storage area, which could even fit our smallest cars guide luggage case its worth. Noting that this space is bigger and easier to use than it is in the model 3 because of its huge hatch opening the same smallest case also fits in the so called frank and tesla says theres over 2 000 liters of total space on offer. Once you put that second row down now, the model y is near identical to the model 3 on this front, meaning you have the choice of either a single motor, rear, wheel, drive model or a dual motor, all wheel drive model, and they also use the new Generation lfp battery, which means they avoid the need for controversially sourced cobalt in their construction. They also have longer ranges than previous versions in the base car. This allows for a driving range of 455 kilometers or 514 kilometers for the performance variant and from what we can tell the power figures are excellent for the segment.

Although tesla wont share specifics with us, we do know that the base rear wheel drive will sprint from 0 to 100 kilometers in 6.3 seconds, slightly slower than the model 3, while the performance variant will do it in a mind bending 3.7 seconds when it comes to Charging the model y is the same as the model 3 offering a solid 11 kilowatts on ac the same as most of its rivals or 250 kilowatts on dc, which is unusually fast. As with the model 3, the brand says to expect around 300 kilometers of range to be added in just 15 minutes on its fastest charging hardware. It is worth noting that teslas have the advantage of being able to use their own proprietary network, as well as the public charging network, giving them an unrivaled amount of places. You can charge up in terms of rolling efficiency. Our model y has scored 13.4 kilowatt hours to 100 kilometers, which is even better than the claim and surprising. Given how close it was to the number that i extracted from our recent model 3 test, the performance variant is slightly less efficient at an official 15.4 kilowatt hours to 100 kilometers. But youll have to wait for a follow up test to see what we get in the real world: Music, so whats it like to drive the model y now, if youve driven any electric car before there wont be too many surprises, especially if youve driven a tesla Before everything in here is pretty much exactly the same as it is to the model 3.

, and so that does mean that you get a little bit of an artificial steering tune. There are three of those i only really like the comfort one. The other two feel a little bit too stiff, but visibility is notably improved from the model 3 at least out the front of this car, because you do have that tall seating position, but it doesnt feel like im sitting on this car. I do feel like im sitting in it, and the seats are really supportive and quite sporty too, which is nice just like the model 3. The model y is really quite rapid. It will accelerate much faster than youd expect from any combustion car, even at a similar price point. Although i will say it does feel a little bit blunted compared to the model 3, possibly because of the extra weight going on here and indeed tesla do say that it will accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers using the same hardware a little bit slower. You do feel the weight of the model y, it feels more cumbersome and it doesnt handle as well as the model 3, and that probably is to do with being further off the ground. You just feel the weight of the battery is being thrown around in the corners quite a bit more and its a shame, because the suspension is still so firm. Its one of my main downsides for this car is that, despite being an suv, i feel tesla hasnt made the best advantage of that extra ride height.

It really does feel unnecessarily harsh over firm bumps and frequent corrugations, its not so bad at dealing with slower, corrugations or bigger undulating, bumps its okay at that, and it feels quite controlled over those kind of surfaces as well, but its those sharp bumps that really intrude Into the cabin might be a deal breaker for some elsewhere, though the model y does have a lot of really appealing driving characteristics, so that acceleration, yes, it can be really rapid. But if youre gentle with the accelerator, its also really nice and smooth it rolls on nicely and the region is great too every time youre slowing down. I do feel like these teslas really make the most of every moment to get energy back into that battery thats. Possibly why theyre also really quite efficient the software as well deserves a special mention, because it does look so slick and i love that radar camera that makes up the safety suite while youre behind the wheel. It just gives you the confidence that the cars brain has seen everything around you, and it does act as a kind of blind spot monitoring system. If you want to think of it. That way, having the massive map display looks really high tech as well. I do love how slick it is to operate, but i will say that moving everything over to this screen is quite distracting, while youre driving and while all of this looks great standing still.

As i mentioned before the moment, you go on the road. Some of those touch elements are just too small. It can be quite distracting to try and adjust things like the steering or your cameras or your mirrors, or even the air conditioning while youre on the road. The cabin is also really quiet. The only thing you can hear under heavy acceleration is a bit of a wine from that rear motor, but other than that, its pretty much silent in here its not as amazing as some evs ive driven, which are truly silent. There is still a little bit of suspension noise and some tyre noise coming in as well, but other than that this car is pretty impressively well sealed. The other thing i have to note about this car is build. Quality feels excellent, theres, no creeks or groans, or cracks or rattles. You can say what you want about cars that are built in china, but this one is excellent. So where does that leave our model? Why well its pretty predictable, really its got all the same characteristics as the model 3, but its just not quite as fun to drive, nor does it handle as well, which is a shame, because it doesnt really justify that harsh ride. That having been said, though, everything else is really lovely in here its quiet, its smooth. It is quick and theres a lot that i think suv buyers who are looking for an ev will be really pleased by now.

Safety in the model y is quite different from how we think about it in other cars, mainly because of the overwhelming number of sensors and cameras in this car, which means that it sort of builds a picture of the world around it. It does have a list of the kind of equivalent features that we normally talk about when it comes to safety in cars, but make sure to check out the full list of features over at carsguy.com at the main written review. One thing that is a bit hard to recommend, though, is the full self driving suite it costs over ten thousand dollars and does add some party tricks like the ability to summon the car to you in car parks, but whether youll be able to legally use the Full autopilot functions that it enables is yet a mystery seems not worth it to me. Music teslas warranty now seems behind the pace with just four years and 80 000 kilometers of coverage thats only just better than bmw when it comes to mainstream automakers, it is worth noting the high voltage battery and drive components are separately warranted for a full 8 years Or 192 000 kilometers, which is more what wed like to see for the whole car teslas, have a condition dependent servicing program. So the car will tell you, when its time to visit the shop teslas menu of service items, of which there arent many just the usual kind of filters and coolants dont seem outrageously priced to us.

I have no doubt the model y will set the sales charts on fire. This brings everything that people love about the model 3 to a more mainstream suv package, while maintaining that really healthy driving range at a not outrageous price for an ev. I really do love the interconnectedness that these cars offer no brainer features and the software thats really hard to come back from once you go back into a normal car as an suv, though i do think it has a couple of floors. The ride is unnecessarily hard and there are some usability blunders in the inside that make it so its never really going to match a rav4 in terms of its ergonomics.