► We’ve been driving the facelifted Model Y
► And, somehow, it’s worse than the old car
► Frustrating cabin and uncomfortable ride
Tesla’s dealing with some bad PR right now. Its CEO is parading around on the political stage with the one of the world’s most powerful (and most unhinged) leaders, chucking Nazi salutes about like sweets and carving huge chunks out the US government’s workforce. He’s not exactly focused on cars. And it shows.
This facelifted Model Y demonstrates the extent of the problem. Tesla reckons it’s better to drive, more user-friendly, more comfortable and more efficient than before. But, having spent a day with the car, I’m not at all convinced. Like most of Tesla’s products, this updated Model Y’s seems to be founded on hype it can’t live up to.
That’s a shame, because Tesla does a lot of things very well. The brand still has the best electric car charging network, while its batteries and motors are amongst the finest on the market. Tesla’s technology is good, but it completely loses its appeal once it’s been packaged into a Tesla car. Scroll down to find out why.
At a glance
Pros: good battery efficiency, AWD model is properly quick, great charging network
Cons: uncomfortable ride, irritating cabin ergonomics, everyone will hate you
What’s new?
Tesla started by tweaking the Model Y’s styling. It now has a new, Cybertruck-inspired front end, a fresh rear spoiler and a howling fridge-freezer of a backside. The company says the tweaks have improved the car’s aerodynamics which, in turn, has increased its maximum WLTP range from 373 to 387 miles.
Changes to the cabin are far less noticeable. Tesla’s added a few aluminium accents, fitted a new 8.0-inch touchscreen for rear-seat passengers and redesigned the centre console (mostly by hiding the cupholders under a new sliding door). The brand also says it’s redesigned the Model Y’s seats, but they look damn-near identical to me.
More importantly, Tesla claims it’s improved the Model Y’s ride comfort and tweaked its suspension geometry. This was always something of a bugbear of ours on CAR magazine, as the old car was far too stiff to call even remotely comfortable – especially around town. As I’ll soon explain, though, the changes haven’t really worked.
What are the specs?
The entry-point to the range is the Rear-Wheel Drive, which has a 0–62mph time of 5.6 seconds and a maximum WLTP range 311 miles. Above that is the Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive, which gets a bigger battery (of undisclosed capacity), a shorter 0–62mph time of 5.4 seconds and a greater 387-mile maximum range.
The top-spec car is badged Long Range All-Wheel Drive (brought about by an extra motor on the front axle). It has a 0–62mph time of 4.6 seconds and a 364-mile range.
Range and charging specs
Any Model Y should be able to drive 300 miles in the real world before stopping to charge, which is probably why it’s the world’s most popular electric car. Convenience is king.
While Tesla won’t tell me how big the Model Y’s batteries are, it has managed to find some partial specs on the car’s charging speeds. Apparently, if you connect it to one of its 250kW Superchargers, it should take on 150 miles of range in just 15 minutes. That’s as far as the specs go, though.
You’d think someone at Tesla would have twigged that it’s important for buyers to know the capability of their cars, wouldn’t you?
How does it drive?
It’s a mixed bag. You can go a long way in the Model Y, but you probably won’t enjoy your journey because of the problems with its chassis. I encountered the first of these problems before I’d even left CAR magazine HQ. The steering’s weird.
I’ve kicked countless metaphors for it around my laptop, but my best attempt at describing it is that it felt rusty. When I wound past a quarter of a turn, the column graunched and knocked like it’d spent the last month at the bottom of the Dead Sea.
The ride’s appalling, too. We complained at length about the old Model Y’s ride and, for this facelifted car, Tesla’s made it worse. It now has softer springs, but the damping doesn’t feel like it’s been adjusted to suit. That means it’s floaty until you hit a bump, at which point it immediately becomes uncomfortable as the granite dampers can’t compress quickly enough to absorb the impact. It’s irritatingly unsettled around town.
This change has influenced the handling, too. The old Model Y wasn’t too bad in corners – the cast iron chassis setup meant it controlled its two-tonne heft quite well. But this new car rolls around a lot more which is rather unnerving, especially when you consider how sterile the steering is.
Put it all together and you’re left with a car that doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence. It’s certainly not a car for keen drivers. If you try and throw it down your favourite B-road, it’ll understeer into the verge long before rivals such as the Kia EV6 or BMW iX2. I managed to get the Tesla’s tyres screaming and its front end washing wide at just 40mph.
Find a straight bit of road, though, and you’ll embarrass most things short of a supercar. The AWD version is very, very fast. I’ve never had a bike licence, but I assume this must be what it feels like to ride one because, if you can see a gap in the traffic, you’ve always got the power to exploit it.
Having that reserve of power is a good thing because everyone else on the road will hate you, doing their best to stop you overtaking or merging. I’ve never driven a car that’s received so much vitriol from the public – and I’ve never been carved up quite so much on the motorway. I felt like a cheap Sunday joint by the time I’d reached my exit on the A1.
What about the interior?
It’s plenty spacious enough, but I struggled to accept the lack of buttons. The cabin’s an ergonomic nightmare. Everything is controlled by the touchscreen, which is ludicrous for a species that’s largely outlawed the use of mobile phones while driving.
Even menial tasks, such as tweaking the steering column or adjusting the door mirrors, require you to tear your eyes away from the road and focus all your energy on the screen to navigate to the correct chapter in the library of menus at your fingertips. It’s dangerous.
What’s worse is the software running the touchscreen isn’t exactly foolproof. The safety assist menu on the right-hand side of the screen told me I’d been steamrolled by any wagon that came with 100 yards of the car, while Tesla’s half-arsed attempt at a native Spotify app couldn’t hold a connection long enough to make it through half a Tool song.
The climate control system got right on my napper, as well. Not only do you need to faff about with the screen to get it work, it’s also ridiculously loud. Even on its lowest setting, it sounded like I was sat on the business end of the Farnborough Wind Tunnel. At least the roaring road noise drowns it out once you’re up to speed.
Credit where it’s due, though, the Model Y’s new centre console is more useful than the old car’s. It has far more storage space and it feels slightly better quality. I’m also pleased it has a proper indicator stalk rather than the idiotic steering wheel buttons you’ll find on the Model 3. But these merits aren’t enough to save the day.
Before you buy
Don’t. Tesla’s technology might still be at the cutting edge, but all the Model Y’s rivals – such as the BMW iX2, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Skoda Enyaq Coupe and Polestar 2 – are better cars. Tesla’s become so focused on producing a dazzling show stand for the Consumer Electronics Show that it’s forgot its primary purpose is to build vehicles.
The Model Y’s ergonomics are seriously compromised by the touchscreen, while its ride and handling can’t stand up to any of its competitors. Even in standard guise, the Kia EV6 is far more composed and much more playful – and if you lined a Model Y AWD up alongside an Ioniq 5 N, the Korean Korner Killer would chew the Tesla up and spit its fancy battery technology all over the tarmac. It’s no competition for me.
Verdict
I’m sure there’s a good car hiding in here somewhere. Like I keep saying, Tesla’s battery and motor technology are right at the pointy end of the class – and its Supercharger network is still the most convenient way of topping up an EV on the move. But the revised Model Y feels unfinished to me.
And the thing is, I don’t think it’d take very much to make it competitive again. Tesla just needs to employ a few more engineers who prefer tinkering with steering and suspension settings rather than fiddling with iPads and Linux. If the ride and refinement was better, I’d have more of a reason to recommend it – but it was awful.
The difficulty of interacting with the cabin was the final nail in the coffin. It’s all too easy to stray out of your lane while digging for the correct menu on the touchscreen – and that means putting your life in the hands of Tesla’s driver assistance technology which, as plenty of online crash reports testify, isn’t foolproof.
For the love of capitalism, Musk. Fix the chassis and put some sodding buttons in it.