Tesla Model Y Review

Tesla managed to sell more than two million Model Ys across 2023 and 2024, topping the charts ahead of the traditional leader – the Toyota Corolla. In a time when some corners of the press like to bash EVs, it's a reminder that simply focusing on range, features and competitive pricing is enough to win customers and convert drivers to electric power.

The Model Y calls itself an SUV, but it's really just a Model 3 saloon that's been stretched in the vertical axis. Underneath, it has a similar battery and motor setup, and most of the interior is carried over unchanged. That means it lacks the high-riding ground clearance of more 4x4-inspired rivals, so don't expect the big Tesla to handle any terrain more demanding than a grassy car park. Obviously, that's not how most owners are planning to use their Model Y, so they're more likely to benefit from the extra range the Model Y's slippery shape enables.

Our test Model Y is a 23-plate RWD version, which would've cost around £45,000 brand new. This is the entry-level model with a 60kWh battery pack and a single 299hp motor on the rear axle. Considering its positioning in the lineup, its 283-mile range and 6.6-second 0-62mph time are strong figures. That's plenty of performance and probably more than enough range for 99% of buyers 99% of the time. It's also worth remembering that it's backed by Tesla's Supercharger network, which is easy to use and offers favourable rates to Tesla owners.

As we found in our Model Y vs Model 3 comparison, there's essentially no difference between the two cars' cabins from the dashboard down. There's a strip of light wood trim running the width of the dash, concealing the air vents, with the company's signature monolithic infotainment touchscreen in the middle. This system effectively controls everything in the car – for better and for worse – with the steering wheel, stalks and pedals being pretty much the only other things you'll ever interact with in the cabin.

A two-year-old Model Y costs around £30,000 at the time of writing with roughly 20,000 miles on the clock. You'll struggle to find many family-sized EVs with comparable specs for less. That said, a glance through Motorpoint's selection of used electric cars shows options like the BMW iX1 and Toyota bZ4X that come up a little cheaper than the Tesla – though not without some compromise to either range, performance or utility. On the plus side, the Model Y's standard equipment list is vast, including the likes of adaptive cruise control, climate control, all-round heated seats, a powered boot lid, a panoramic glass sunroof and Tesla's built-in sat nav.

As we'll discover further down in this review, the pre-facelift Model Y earns middling scores for refinement, handling and ride comfort – and these are the areas that've received the most attention for the new 'Juniper' Model Y facelift. The question you and your budget will have to answer is whether the new car, which starts at £45,000, is worth the 50% price increase over a £30,000 used example like the one we're testing here. For our money, we don't think the old car is so compromised that it's not worth its asking price, so potential Model Y buyers might want to try out a more affordable pre-facelift car before committing to a pricier updated version.

Before we delve into the rectangular elephant in the middle of the dashboard, let's acquaint ourselves with the rest of the Model Y's cabin. It won't take long – there's basically nothing else here. There's no driver's dials of any kind, no climate controls and no exposed air vents. It gets even more extreme, however, when you realise Tesla's also ditched controls for steering wheel adjustment and door mirror position, with both of these now accessed via the touchscreen.

Oddly enough, one place Tesla has added buttons is to open the doors from the inside. We can live with the occasional adjustment through the screen, but this seems like a step too far. Not only is this feature more vulnerable to failure than a mechanical door handle, but it's also a safety risk as Tesla makes no effort to point out the location of the emergency backup handles. This omission has been linked to a small number of accident deaths in Tesla cars as occupants were unable to find the backup handles. For reference, front handles are just ahead of the window switches, and rear handles are located under a flap in the rear door bins.

Our Tesla was built in the brand's Shanghai factory and felt very well screwed together. There were no loose-fitting trim pieces and no squeaks or rattles as the car dealt with uneven British roads. Body panel alignment was also perfectly acceptable – this was a sore spot for early Model 3s and Model Ys. All cars feature vegan-friendly faux leather upholstery that feels reasonably nice to the touch if quite obviously artificial.

The defining feature of all modern Teslas is their enormous infotainment systems. This 15.4-inch landscape-orientated screen handles pretty much every function in the car that's not directly related to driving it – and there are a lot of functions. There's configurable shortcut buttons along the bottom of the screen, along with an almost dizzying mix of traditional menus and graphic-based interfaces, such as the one used to pop the 'frunk' or open the charging port. If you're the kind of person who takes to new technology like a duck to water, you'll probably appreciate the Tesla's sheer flexibility and configurability.

It's just not as intuitive as more traditional dashboard setups, however, and less tech-savvy users might find they need a lot of coaching to get their heads around it. On the plus side, the screen is so massive that most on-screen buttons end up pretty big, which makes them fairly easy to hit at a glance, and its responses to inputs are snappy. It's a little disappointing that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto aren't included as Tesla wants to keep users locked to its own software. You at least get a built-in sat nav that automatically includes builds charging stops into your route, plus most major music and audio-streaming services already baked into the system. However, some of the desirable features are locked behind a Premium subscription.

The Model Y is a big car, measuring 4.75 metres long and more than 1.9 metres wide excluding the door mirrors. That's a bigger footprint than fuel-powered rivals like the Mercedes GLC, BMW X3 and Audi Q5, plus EV competitors like the Kia EV6, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Hyundai Ioniq 5. It feels big on the road too, with that width figure especially obvious on tight country lanes. At least visibility is decent, with a vast windscreen and minimal obstruction from the pillars. Over-the-shoulder visibility is comparatively good thanks to the car's big rear quarterlights, but the view out the back is surprisingly small due to the steeply raked rear windscreen and tall boot. Tesla's all-round cameras do make tight parking jobs a little easier at least.

Passenger space is strong, just as it is in the Model 3. Both front seats have wide-ranging electric adjustment allowing for very tall occupants to get comfortable. Since the dash is shared with the shorter Model 3, you get the sensation there's a lot of glass around and above you, with most of the controls located beneath you. This makes the front feel nice and airy, but means you don't feel as though you're cocooned in a cockpit like you are in some sportier rivals.

Rear-passenger space is also up there with the class best. You could happily seat a six-foot adult behind another with some room to spare, and even still fit an average-sized adult in the back with the front seat pushed all the way back on its rails. The centre-rear fifth seat is also better than most rivals as the seat base is flat, there's no transmission tunnel, and you even get a seat heater just like every other seat in the car – though you'll have to ask the front occupants to turn them on for you.

The boot is huge – bigger than its key rivals, and also includes a big under-floor bin. Tesla's quoted 854-litre figure is measured all the way to the windscreen, however, rather than the parcel shelf like the industry standard. The disparity is unlikely to be large though, as the steeply raked rear windscreen and high rear boot line means there's barely any actual space above the parcel shelf. Early Model Ys didn't actually have a parcel shelf, with the foldable magnetic one Tesla's since added feeling like something of an afterthought. It doesn't lift with the boot lid, so needs to be manually moved any time you want to take advantage of the Model Y's more useful hatchback-style boot.

There's also the 'frunk' that occupies the space where an engine would go on a traditional car. This is still bigger than most of the Model Y's main rivals – some of which don't even include this handy feature – and should happily swallow a couple of soft travel bags. This cavity ahead of the passenger space also helps contribute to the Model Y's excellent safety score, giving the car more crumple space in an impact. Cabin storage is reasonably good too, with big door bins and a large centre cubby between the front seats, but we found it frustrating having to use the touchscreen to open the glovebox.

Our Model Y RWD test car comes with the smallest 60kWh battery pack. That means a claimed range of 283 miles, which should mean the car can do at least 200 miles in absolute worst-case conditions – ie. motorway speeds in the depths of winter, for example. Considering most drivers' daily mileages are just a fraction of this figure, you'll probably find you'll only need to recharge the Model Y once a week or so.

Model Y RWDs like this one can DC fast charge at up to 170kW. That's a little shy of the 210kW rate that bigger-battery 78kWh Long Range and Performance models can muster but, as there's less battery to fill in the first place, all versions advertise the same 28-minute 10-80% fast-charge time. Like most EVs, you can expect a full 0-100% charge overnight if you're using a standard 7kW home charger.

Despite our car's lowly position in the Model Y lineup, its 299hp electric motor gives it excellent performance. At almost all speeds, you sense that there's plenty of grunt left in reserve should you suddenly find you want to jump into a gap in traffic, and you can access it with just the tiniest flex of your toe. That abundant shove lasts all the way up to motorway speeds, so you can happily hang with the BMWs in the overtaking lanes.

Pedal tuning of both the accelerator and the brakes is spot on, with the car reacting confidently and decisively to your inputs. There's no noticeable crossover point between the strong regenerative brakes and the physical pads clamping the brake discs, just an instant and even response as you press the pedal harder.

As an everyday driver, the Model Y is generally easy to get on with. The instant and abundant acceleration means the car feels unstressed as it stops and starts around town, with no waiting for revs to build or a gearbox to select the right ratio. Its controls are light, requiring very little effort to get the car going in the direction you want, although this does mean there's not much of a sporty sense of connection through the steering wheel.

It uses the same quick-ratio steering as the Model 3, which means you barely need to put any lock on to get the front wheels turned the way you want. This setup doesn't work quite so well in the Model Y, however, because it's taller than the Model 3 with a higher centre of gravity. As a result, the lightning-quick steering makes the Model Y feel a bit tippy on top of its suspension, and capable of some quite alarming wobbling if you provoke it with dramatic side-to-side motions.

Clearly, this is a car that prefers a more gentle hand on the road, which you'd hope would be paired with a soft suspension setup to make it a better everyday cruiser. Sadly, Tesla hasn't quite pulled it off, with the Model Y feeling a little underdamped over big bumps like potholes, with jolts getting sent up the car's stiff structure into your seat base. There's also a fairly constant sense of jiggle over smaller road imperfections, which means the Model Y doesn't feel as floaty as its comfiest rivals. Tesla's 'Juniper' Model Y facelift makes several changes to the car's structure as well as adding clever frequency-selective dampers that, by all accounts, address many of these complaints.

We also felt the Model Y's refinement left a little to be desired. Its impressively aerodynamic body doesn't generate much noticeable wind noise, but there's a near-constant background drone from the car's tyres, as well as audible thumps from the suspension as it deals with the car's substantial mass. Like many EVs, the Model Y actually suffers here compared to engine-powered models that effectively have a white-noise generator under the bonnet. You can, of course, easily drown this out with the car's stereo, but there's no hiding the fact the Model Y isn't quite as hushed as rivals like the Kia EV6 and Mercedes EQC.