Tesla Model Y

According to the onboard data, the Model Y is quite efficient. One tester said they observed an average of 4.3 miles per kilowatt-hour in a mix of city and highway driving over 200 miles during summer weather. The Model Y’s EPA rating is 3.4 miles per kWh, while the Chevrolet Equinox EV’s is 3.1 mi/kWh and the Ford Mustang Mach E’s is 2.9 mi/kWh.

Tesla did an admirable job addressing one of our big complaints with the last iteration of the Model Y. The new SUV has low, subdued levels of wind noise, even up to 75 or 80 miles per hour. Road noise is a mild hum on smooth roads, although it’s more noticeable on rougher surfaces.

But there’s still some high-pitched electrical whining from the rear, particularly as the SUV accelerates. Many other automakers—legacy companies, in particular—do a better job of keeping the powertrain-related noise to a minimum.

The cabin has also seen some significant upgrades, with better materials throughout. There’s suedelike trim on all four doors, supple synthetic leather seating surfaces, and contrasting stitching on the armrests and center console. Both the deep storage bin between the front seats and the glove box are fully lined with felt, so items stored there don’t rattle around. It isn’t the height of luxury, but the interior is now much more appropriate for the Model Y’s price.

The front seats do a great job of balancing long-distance comfort with support. They’re soft enough to settle into without being enveloped, as if sitting in Dad’s lounge chair. Both the back and bottom cushions are firm and have good bolstering that forms a pocket for the driver and passenger to sit in. There’s also a four-way adjustable lumbar and a wide range of adjustments to the height and angle of the bottom cushion.

We’d give the Tesla an A+ here if only there were gauges in front of the driver. (The center infotainment screen provides the information that’s usually in an instrument cluster, but it requires the driver to look off to the right to see it.) Of course, the lack of an instrument panel allows Tesla to keep the dashboard height low, which in turn provides the driver with a commanding view straight ahead over the low hood.

We also appreciate that the center console’s design frees up lots of space for the driver’s right knee, which aids comfort on longer trips. The armrests are symmetrical and fairly well-padded. It’s easy to drive with both hands on the wheel and both elbows on the armrests. And lastly, the steering wheel has a generous adjustment range.

The aforementioned center console storage is impressively deep and easily accessible. There’s a decent-sized bin under the center armrest and a far larger bin toward the front of the console with a nicely damped lid to keep items out of sight. Any beverage spills won’t be the fault of the two cup holders, which do a great job of securing bottles and cups. There are even dual phone charger pads just below the front touchscreen.

All four doors have large, fully lined storage compartments and useful, if not overly generous, bottle holders.

Tesla continues to offer a usable front trunk, which is roomy enough for a large soft-sided bag. The rear cargo area is quite generous, and there’s a small under-floor storage compartment as well. Tesla added the ability to power-fold and raise the 60/40-split rear seats using buttons inside the SUV by the cargo hatch, making it easy to expand the space. In our test of the last Model Y, we measured 25 cubic feet of usable space, and we’ll measure the new Y in our tests to see if there have been any improvements.

It’s easy to charge the Model Y, thanks to Tesla’s network of DC fast chargers. Compared with charging at other public charging options, Tesla’s is a seamless process with convenient locations. All an owner has to do is plug it into the car, and it starts charging. There isn’t any fumbling with an app or payment method; owners get billed afterward. Plus, the Model Y has a maximum acceptance rate of 250 kilowatts, which enables about 16 miles of range gained per minute of charging, which is quick.

At the time this First Drive was written, the Model Y had two levels of the always-on regenerative braking. It’s always in “one-pedal” mode, where the driver controls the car’s speed and braking purely with the accelerator pedal. Neither regen level is so severe that lifting off the pedal on city streets or the highway feels as if the parking brake was activated. But unlike in many EVs, the driver can’t put the Model Y into a “coast” mode, in which the car glides down the road without slowing.

It also makes the car very tricky to maneuver around parking lots, make low-speed turns, and park close to something. In these situations, lifting off the accelerator pedal does feel as if someone hit the parking brake because the SUV slows very suddenly. Without a way to fully turn the regen off, it’s a challenge to make small speed adjustments by lifting off the accelerator pedal.

Score one for customer feedback. It seems that the steering wheel buttons used for the turn signals in the Cybertruck and Model 3 were not a hit with owners. So the Model Y comes with a traditional stalk. Great, right? No.

Some testers found that the turn signal would spontaneously auto-cancel even though they hadn’t completed their lane change, requiring them to repeatedly activate it. Moving across a few lanes to enter or exit a highway? That takes two or three separate activations.

The stalk also lacks a “flash to pass” function for the front lights, a feature found on nearly every other vehicle. To flash the lights, drivers need to press the high-beam button on the steering wheel, which is annoying.

The Model Y’s exterior door handles are frustrating to use. Pressing on one side of the lever to pop it out and then pulling on the other side requires an awkward and unnatural hand movement. They can’t be grabbed easily with either hand, and it’s even worse for people trying to get in when carrying something.

The fact that the door handles don’t automatically extend may leave passengers who are new to the vehicle confused and angry. This was especially true in one case when it was raining and a passenger got drenched while trying to figure out how to open the door. On the bright side, at least the door pops open slightly on its own once the lever is pressed, and it does the same thing when the inner door buttons are pressed to get out.

Although the freshened Y retains a turn signal stalk, it lost the gear selector, just like the Model 3. Now located on the left side of the center screen, the gear selector consists of sliding icons that operate counterintuitively to most gear selectors.

Additional touch-capacitive gear selection buttons are located in the overhead console. They’re somewhat hidden when not being used, which makes them even harder to operate, and they’re intended as a backup in case of a screen malfunction.

The windshield wipers have some of the worst automatic logic we’ve experienced in any vehicle. Somehow, they will randomly activate on a dry, sunny day. As one tester said, “I don’t know if it’s trying to clear off the cameras or what, but it feels amateur.”

Yet when rain is pouring down, the wipers either won’t activate or they’ll only move at a rate that isn’t appropriate for the level of precipitation. If the driver makes an adjustment, the system makes them wipe too much.

This is in addition to the existing frustrations, such as being forced to go through the screen to adjust the side mirrors, steering wheel position, and the airflow of the dash vents.

Yes, voice controls can be used to perform a wide variety of the Model 3’s functions. But until the driver gets used to that, it could be dangerous when, for example, it starts pouring rain and it’s unclear what the process is to turn on the windshield wipers. Even then, it’s slower to talk to the car and request that it do something that a simple flick of a lever can handle.

Once the rear seats are folded down, it is apparent that the cargo cover shade is quite flimsy. Plus, the seatbacks don’t fold completely flat. Rather, they come to rest at a slight angle, which has an impact on the ability to carry long items.

Numerous testers have said that the air conditioning has a hard time cooling the cabin on hot summer days. We’ve had numerous days with temperatures in the 90s and high humidity, and the AC just can’t keep up.

Fortunately, Tesla toned down the suspension slightly to give the Model Y a more compliant ride. Even with that change, it remains a very crisp-handling SUV that’s happy to tackle twisty roads. There’s minimal body roll and, overall, the Y is quite nimble. The steering remains unnaturally quick, and this aspect stands out even more now than before due to the suspension’s softer setup. It makes it feel like the suspension can’t quite keep up with the steering. But more than that, the dartiness of the steering takes some getting used to.

As we said up top, Tesla’s improvements to ride comfort had a low standard to beat. The suspension does a much better job absorbing bumps now, with fewer of the stiff kicks and jittery sensations than we constantly felt in the last Model Y we tested.

Still, this isn’t a smooth-riding SUV. It’s rather stiff when driving over broken pavement and ridges such as highway expansion joints, where bump absorption gets choppy. Moderate to hard impacts also come through loudly. Some testers felt out-of-phase pitching, where the body moves excessively after going over a series of bumps. There’s also some vibration that comes through the steering wheel on any surface other than smooth pavement, and the body tends to shudder when just one wheel hits a pothole or ridge.

We continue to see inconsistency in the lane keeping assistance (LKA), lane centering assistance (LCA), and lane departure warning (LDW) systems, and too often, they work in conflict with the driver’s intentions.

The LKA inputs are effective and come very quickly. But the system will fight the driver, even if they respond to the lane drift and try to make a correction on their own. The end result is the same—the Model Y gets back in the lane—but it can be unnerving. Although the display clearly shows which lane lines the Model Y is detecting, it’s still hard to know when LKA or LDW are actually active and ready to help. Just because the lines appear on the screen doesn’t always mean the system will step in or warn the driver.

The Model Y comes standard with LDW, LKA, Traffic-Aware Cruise Control (Tesla’s name for adaptive cruise control, or ACC), and Autosteer (the automaker’s name for LCA). It also has Autopilot, Tesla’s active driving assistance (ADA) system, which allows for the simultaneous use of ACC and LCA.

The system Tesla calls Full Self-Driving (Supervised) (FSD) is optional. Built on top of the Autopilot hands-on driving system, FSD is designed to control steering and speed. Tesla claims it enables the vehicle to navigate complex situations like highway interchanges, turns, and intersections along the entire route. In our tests of the Model 3, we found the system could cause the vehicle to unexpectedly change lanes on its own or make turns abruptly, disrupting traffic flow.

Any steering input by the driver results in the system disengaging, requiring the driver to re-engage, which is annoying. Tesla’s logic seems to want the driver to “go along” with the car rather than collaborate on driving. But the end result can be a scary proposition.