First Drive – Tesla Model Y Facelift 

The news hasn’t been so good for Tesla lately, what with Musk taking his eye off the ball while heading up DOGE. And then there was the political fallout of his bromance break-up with Trump. There has certainly been an impact on Tesla sales and its share price but perhaps now that Musk is back at the helm, he will be able to right the ship. 

Meantime, there has been some good news for Tesla in that the rollout of the Robotaxi concept is imminent in the US, and locally the comprehensively facelifted Model Y has arrived. Initially, there was just the Launch Edition but now there’s a base RWD variant and a Long Range AWD dual-motor option, with a Performance model likely towards the end of the year. However, Tesla staff from head office in Australia were loth to confirm that. Odd really, given there’s a Tesla Model 3 Performance variant. Naturally a Model Y variant will follow. Anyhow, it’s the RWD version that the company launched here with, at least for the press drive. AWDs are also available for $10k more which seems not a lot for the added range and performance.

I’d not driven a RWD Model Y before, only the Performance version. However, I’ve sampled plenty of other like-priced EVs and feel this one is a standout at its price. Certainly, it’s amongst the best medium-sized fully electric SUVs on the market. Sure, it has its quirks. And, again oddly, the autonomous drive was one of these. People were reporting it was disengaging repeatedly in some of the test machines. Tesla staff reckon it takes 100km or so to familiarise itself with whatever country it is delivered to. No such problems with the totally new example I drove. 

However, despite Tesla touting itself as the autonomous expert, plenty of other systems that do the steering, braking and acceleration for you on the motorway are smoother and better sorted. This one has a tendency to keep a little too far left in a lane rather than staying centred, which will probably upset faster lane splitting motorcyclists. It does have one really great aspect though and that’s the ability to change lanes safely by merely indicating. The vehicle does the rest and also turns the indicator off after completing the manoeuvre.

Visually improved

Honestly, that’s about the only aspect of the vehicle that wasn’t totally impressive. The look is the first aspect that most people will comment on. It’s much better. Evidently the facelift takes certain cues from the Cybertruck programme. It now has thin lightbars front and rear and the main headlights are more or less hidden below. They’re of the matrix variety too, so can be left on full beam and they autodip by turning off pixels so as not to blind oncoming traffic. Moreover, the bumpers at each end are reconfigured, with small air ducts up front to divert the air around the wheels. These have black caps over the 19-inch alloys which supposedly reduces energy use by about 2-3 per cent. At the rear is a new three-piece door – it’s simpler and cheaper to repair – with a small ducktail-style spoiler and a new diffuser. The original Model Y had a Cd of 0.23; this new one has an aerodynamic figure of 0.22, adding 11km to range. 

Interior makeover

The lightbar at the back looks good, while inside there are significant changes as well. There’s still the big 15.4-inch central touchscreen that is the master in charge of everything. Unlike the Model 3 the new Y has a regular left-sided indicator wand. The wheel is also new, though the spokes are set a touch high to my mind, meaning your hands adopt a 10 to 2 position. It’s comfy enough though, with adaptive cruise controls on the right side. Above there’s a huge panoramic sunroof, with a silver coating to prevent overheating and the need for a sunblind.

Mirrors and steering column positioning you set in the central screen – I found the mirror controls fiddly – and the cabin is a button-free zone, the only exceptions being on the wheel for the wipers and front camera (a new feature). Push the wiper button once and a menu comes up on screen or you can cycle through the menu by repeated stabs of the wiper button. It works okay but it’s a bit clunky. A rotating controller on the indicator stalk is much simpler. 

Most of the other stuff is relatively straightforward. The powered seat controls are in the conventional place and the lumbar pump is solid. Seat ventilation is new, along with heating and there’s a wheel warmer too. Changing drive modes is easy (chill=eco) and there’s just one other standard drive mode. Same essentially with recuperation, low or standard. We liked both. On tight stuff, standard is good, no brakes required. For other roads, low is fine, gently braking you almost to a halt. This has one of the best crawl modes I’ve ever encountered. It almost does it intuitively. 

Weather challenge

The day was a washout for the best parts of the drive (to Piha out, Scenic Drive return). But that didn’t matter, not once we were more familiar with the wiper mechanism. There’s a slippery driving mode which amps up the TC a little, and also prevents really heavy braking. You can almost stand on the brake pedal and it doesn’t seem to go anywhere near the ABS intervention point. Slip back to normal drive mode and the brake power returns. Clever stuff. So are the electronics; they intervene only when necessary. So you can press on even in the wet and this just responds faithfully. Helping is a low centre of gravity, an even weight split, and not too much of it, just over 1900kg.

Bear in mind that this is a medium-sized SUV, almost 4.8m in length and with a single, rear mounted motor. So there’s generous luggage space up front (117L, which includes a drain for wet gear) and an almost as large underfloor hold (100L). You can store the magnetic cargo cover under there too if you want. We probably would as it’s quite sizeable and makes viewing stuff at the front of the hold a little tricky. Anyhow, lots of room back there, with 854L when all seats are in use (includes the large underfloor bin), and 2138L after split folding. There’s generous leg and headroom for the folks in the back too. They get new heated seats and an eight-inch touchscreen that can accept two Bluetooth headsets.

The split folding is a powered set-up, done one of three ways. And one of the accessories is a Tesla mattress, should you choose to have a weekend away in the wilderness. Or own a massive hound. 

Ride and handling impress

At the outset of the day, the Tesla folk said we wouldn’t credit the improvement in ride quality. Within 100m of leaving the Mangere store, it’s evident that this is just outright plush at urban speeds. It also flattens speed bumps effortlessly…so long as you’re not exceeding 30km/h. The suspension isn’t active but uses frequency dependent dampers. Hence, the comfy ride at urban speeds, and the firmer, controlled progress through corners. It was just too wet to push things much but this points well, with prompt turn in and good feedback at the helm. 

And from the driver’s perspective there is great forward visibility, even if there’s not so much glass area out the rear window. The seating position and comfort are noteworthy, except for the hard edge you rest your left knee against. Build is sound, not an untoward noise to be heard. 

As to the numbers, the Rear Wheel Drive model kicks off at $67,900 before ORCs. It features a 220kW motor (torque not given but estimated between 350 and 430Nm) powered by a 63kWh LFP battery pack. That gives it a claimed 466km of range according to WLTP. Its sprint time drops by 1sec from the previous model (6.9 to 5.9sec). At no time did we feel this needed any more power. Even chill mode feels quite stroppy, certainly more than enough for town driving.

Add $10k for the Long-Range AWD variant which comes with a 78kWh NMC battery and is good for 336kW and 639Nm. It is said to run 0-100 in 4.3sec. That compares with 4.5sec for its predecessor. Its claimed range is similar to before at 551km. When either variant hooks up to a 250kW Supercharger, up to 283km can be added in 15min. Both come with a four-year/80,000km warranty. Battery cover is roughly twice that. And Tesla has a mobile tyre repair service as well as the Supercharger network (28 locations NZ wide).

Up with the best in class

Our overall impression? This is simply an outstanding electric SUV from just about any standpoint. The RWD model we drove also feels more premium than its asking price. That’s perhaps partly a reflection of new acoustic glass used; evidently it reduces wind noise by 20 per cent. Road noise, down by 22 per cent, is also notably absent, in part due to new low rolling resistance rubber.  

Rivals in this area include Leapmotor C10 (less power, range and price), Kia EV6 (more expensive, more range), Kia EV5 (similar price, bigger battery, not as quick), Ioniq 5 (rather more expensive), VW ID.4 (less expensive, less performance, more range), and BYD Sealion 7 (same price, not as quick, more range). 

There are also myriad inbound models like Smart #5 and Geely EX5, and Cupra Tavascan, among others. None has the Musk effect, though nowadays most will probably be okay with that.