I've ordered a Tesla Model Y! And we've finally had the chance to drive one on Australian roads. Australia gets two variants of the Tesla Model Y - the entry level (tested here) and the Model Y Performance (which we are yet to test). Is it any good? Paul Maric finds out!
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Tesla content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/tesla
More Tesla Model Y content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/tesla/model-y
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 00:55
Interior 04:43
Infotainment 06:46
Safety Tech 14:53
Practicality 16:40
Charging 22:32
On the Road 23:35
0 - 100 km/h 30:40
Verdict 33:15
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#tesla #modely #review
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Tesla content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/tesla
More Tesla Model Y content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/tesla/model-y
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 00:55
Interior 04:43
Infotainment 06:46
Safety Tech 14:53
Practicality 16:40
Charging 22:32
On the Road 23:35
0 - 100 km/h 30:40
Verdict 33:15
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#tesla #modely #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. I have some good news. The Tesla Model Y has finally arrived in Australia.
00:05 I'm not going to bore you with the details, but this was meant to come out last year.
00:09 For whatever reason, it didn't, but it is finally here. We get the made-in-China version,
00:13 so this comes from the Shanghai factory, along with the Model 3 for Australia.
00:17 It's been launched in Australia with two variants, the Standard range, which is this one here,
00:21 and also the Performance. There is a Long Range coming eventually as well.
00:25 This is priced from just under $70,000. It competes with things like the Kia EV6, the
00:31 Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Volvo XC40, those kinds of vehicles.
00:36 Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead
00:39 to other parts of the review, you can use the time codes on the screen, or if you're
00:43 on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below, and if you haven't done so
00:47 already, please subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon. That'll tell you every
00:51 single time we drive one of these very late-to-Australia cars.
00:54 Now, before we get started with exterior, I thought I'd tell you I've bought one of
00:58 these, so we'll be doing a whole lot more content on the Model Y when mine arrives as
01:02 well. You get five colours to pick from, all but white are going to cost you $1,500 extra,
01:08 all the red colour, which is an additional $2,900. In terms of the design, this shares
01:13 a platform with the Model 3, so it looks very similar to the Model 3 sedan, big difference
01:17 being this is obviously an SUV, and the boot is slightly different as well, and it's just
01:22 bigger in most of its proportions. So, in terms of the design, this is all blanked up
01:26 the front here because you don't need cooling at this height. The battery and the cooling
01:30 system sits beneath here, and that all feeds in under there. It means that you can blank
01:34 all of this, which helps with aerodynamics. Down the front here, you've got a set of parking
01:38 sensors. There is no radar sensor down here because these cars now just use camera, and
01:43 that is camera for your distance-based cruise control, and also all of the autopilot functions
01:48 as well. In terms of the headlight technology, you have full LED headlights. If you want
01:52 to get a better idea of how this type of headlight technology works, click up here to watch our
01:57 headlight comparison video.
01:59 Round the side here now, this is where things get interesting. So, the standard entry-level
02:03 car comes with a set of 19-inch alloy wheels. They have the aero cover on them. This is
02:08 the optional set of 20-inch alloy wheels. These also come with a Pilot Sport EV tyre,
02:13 so it's a Michelin tyre specifically designed for EVs. It has low rolling resistance, it's
02:17 got foam inside there as well to keep it nice and quiet. The downside is, though, that this
02:22 comes with a stiffer sidewall, and obviously as you move your way up through this wheel
02:26 range it's going to become stiffer and stiffer. So, I'm hoping this doesn't ride too badly
02:31 because one of the things I didn't really like about my Mold 3 performance was that
02:34 it was way too firm. I'm hoping that this being the entry-level, it is nice and cushy.
02:38 I'll touch on the brakes quickly. So, obviously, as an EV, you don't really use a great deal
02:42 of friction brakes like these things here, but when you do, this uses four piston calipers,
02:47 355mm rotor up the front, 335mm rotor at the rear, so that's a pretty decent set of numbers
02:54 in terms of stopping power. Then on the ground clearance front, it has just under 180mm of
02:59 ground clearance. Up the top here, you have a set of black wheel arch protectors. This
03:03 is where one of the cameras sits, so this faces backwards. You've got two of these,
03:07 one on each side. This, in addition to the front and rear camera, is also used for some
03:11 of the dash cam functionality that I'll run you through later on. You don't have an indicator
03:16 built into that wing mirror. It's all located in this little cluster just here. I like that
03:20 they've blacked out all of this stuff. With my Mold 3, this was all chrome, then they
03:25 went to a black highlight here, and I think this works really well, especially here with
03:28 this colour. Glass roof, again like the Mold 3, that's standard with the car, as is privacy
03:33 glass. Another set of those cameras located in here. Come around to the back. Now, this
03:39 is where it differs mostly from your Mold 3. So, you can see here that this sits higher
03:43 and has that roof line that comes all the way to the back there and then drops off.
03:47 A little bit of a boot lip spoiler built into there with the Tesla logo. This has a whole
03:51 lot more boot space than the Mold 3, and the Mold 3 wasn't short on boot space either,
03:55 so that is one of the big advantages of having this type of arrangement. Back here, you have
04:00 a set of LED taillights. This looks great at night time. Then you have your charging
04:04 port on this side here. I'll run you through how that works a little later on. Now, you
04:08 can get towing capacity here, so 1600 kilos of brake towing capacity. This will be coming
04:14 later to Australia, I've heard 2023, but you are able to then fit that to the car and
04:19 you're able to then tow, you know, whatever you need to tow up to 1600 kilos with a brake
04:23 trailer. Now, let me know what you reckon about the design of the Model Y. Design is
04:28 entirely subjective. I personally don't love the look of it, but it doesn't really bother
04:32 me too much when you're sitting inside. It doesn't really matter what it looks like on
04:34 the outside, but I am keen for your feedback. Do you think it is a good-looking car, or
04:39 do you think it is an ugly-looking car? Let me know what you reckon down there.
04:42 So we are inside the Model Y. Let's start off with the key. This is interesting, though.
04:48 So this is the little key pouch in here. When you buy the car, you get two of these cards,
04:53 and the cards are basically your access to the car. So there is no physical key itself,
04:59 you just have these two. This taps on the outside of the car, then once you're inside,
05:03 you place it here, and then it authenticates you with the car, and you're good to go. But
05:06 when you own one of these, you probably will never use this. It'll sit at home or in your
05:10 wallet or something like that, because all of your authentication is done via the phone,
05:14 and I'll run you through how that works a little bit later on.
05:17 Now the design. One word is minimalist, and that is because really there are no buttons
05:21 and all that sort of stuff. It's all driven through this screen here, or on the steering
05:25 wheel controls, or alternatively through voice controls. So that's why there really isn't
05:30 a great deal going on. Even with the air vents, you adjust those all on the screen here, you
05:34 don't actually have any physical air vent controls.
05:37 On the materials. So on that top part of the dashboard, that's a nice soft material, because
05:41 this car has the optional white interior. Both the black and the white interior are
05:46 both vegan, which means it's not a real leather. The white car comes with this white trim along
05:50 the sides and along the dashboard, whereas the black seats come with a faux wood grain
05:54 along the sides and the dashboard as well. And then along the door as well, you also
05:58 have this sort of Alcantara style material that breaks up those surfaces.
06:03 In terms of your other touch points, so this is soft to the touch in the centre, and soft
06:08 on the door as well. How soft is it? Well we've got our durometer, we've tested the
06:12 main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've
06:15 tested before, have a look at the link in the description.
06:19 Build quality. You're all wondering what's this like, it's made in China. We're reviewing
06:25 an Audi today, and this genuinely feels as solid as the Audi. All of this feels really
06:30 nice and well put together. And finally our door test. So you open the door by pushing
06:35 this button up the top. Sounds OK, a tiny bit tinny, because it has those frameless
06:43 windows so there's not really a great deal of support for them when you close it.
06:47 Now moving on to infotainment, this isn't going to be a detailed look at the Tesla infotainment
06:51 system, but I'll give you a run through of all the main features and things that you
06:54 might find interesting. So it is a 15-inch display and it's all a touchscreen. This controls
07:00 everything from satellite navigation through to your climate control and also your audio
07:04 functions as well. All the car functions too, so this is very much the hub for everything
07:10 to do with the car. So central to the display here you have satellite navigation. You can
07:14 see here we can see the proving ground that we're at. You can then move this bottom menu
07:19 completely out of the way if you want to, or bring it up whenever you want. In addition
07:22 to that you can bring satellite overlays into play. You can see exactly where we are. This
07:27 also includes traffic as well, so if there is traffic in the area it'll show up on the
07:32 map and it will also help you route around that traffic so you don't get too stuck.
07:36 Now in terms of navigation, when you do click up here you can set home and work addresses,
07:41 but as you type, because it's using Google to look for these destinations, you can just
07:45 type in the names of places and it will use Google to find the exact name of the place
07:49 that you're after and then navigate there. If you do need a charge along the way it will
07:52 suggest a route that includes chargers, or if you want to specifically look for chargers
07:56 you just hit this button here and it will show you all the superchargers in addition
08:00 to all the slower chargers. The thing I like about this as well is if we go into the superchargers
08:06 you will actually then be able to see how many people are at the actual supercharger
08:11 itself. So over here in Mornington it shows you there's six stalls available. It also
08:15 shows you the pricing of the supercharger as well so you know exactly what you're going
08:19 to be up for when you get there and whether any of them are out of service. So really
08:23 good setup and if you do need to get to somewhere very quickly it's very easy to do.
08:28 The other cool thing as well is you can send destinations from your phone to the navigation.
08:32 So if you open up Google Maps for example and you type in a destination. I found this
08:36 especially useful when my wife needed to come and find me after a night out drinking. I
08:41 couldn't really explain where I was but I put my location into Google Maps, sent it
08:45 to the car and it basically just beamed it onto the screen here and she was able to just
08:48 follow that. So really cool setup and an excellent sort of satellite navigation system.
08:53 Over on this side you have all the controls for the car. So this is where you can open
08:56 the front and the back. You can lock and unlock the car and also open your charging ports.
09:00 All of your car settings are in this menu here. This is also where you change your mirrors
09:05 and also the steering wheel controls. So you can see here that these buttons on the steering
09:09 wheel don't have any labels and that's because depending on which part of this menu you're
09:13 in it is going to basically make adjustments using steering wheel controls. So right now
09:19 I can move the wheel up and down but then if I go into the mirror menu this now controls
09:23 the left hand side mirror and then when I'm out of all of this that's actually a volume
09:27 control. So really cool setup and it means that you have fewer buttons on the steering
09:31 wheel and fewer things to eventually go wrong.
09:35 What else can I show you here? So let's have a look at some of your interesting functions.
09:39 When I say interesting these are the kind of things that you're probably not going to
09:42 ever really use but they're here anyway. You've got games so if you're at a charger or something
09:46 like that you can play some of these games. They load onto the centre screen there. You've
09:50 also got a theatre as well. This is where you can access some of your streaming services
09:55 including YouTube, Netflix, Disney, all that sort of stuff that the kids are into. So here
10:00 I'll show you an example of how this works. We can type in the best channel on YouTube.
10:06 Oh there you go, Car Expert. When you open it up you're able to then basically just select
10:11 the videos and basically just click on something to play and it'll start playing it. Same story
10:16 with Netflix. Once you start clicking on that you type in your details and you can watch
10:20 stuff while you're sitting there waiting. And then finally as well you have the toy
10:25 box which is more useless features to keep you busy. Music wise you have FM, DAB, digital
10:31 radio. You also have streaming services with TuneIn, Tidal and Spotify. I'll just quickly
10:36 show you how this looks. You can search for whatever you're interested in. So if you're
10:40 into good music you can search for Korn and it will then show up. You then hit one of
10:44 the songs and it just starts playing immediately streaming. So that's a pretty good set up.
10:49 This is where I can tell you about the sound system. The sound system in these is absolutely
10:54 incredible. So 13 speakers, one subwoofer and two amplifiers. I mentioned on my Twitter
10:59 previously that Tesla went out and hired some former Bang & Olufsen engineers and they basically
11:05 put together this sound system. There's no branding on it but it is better than any other
11:08 sound system I've ever heard in a production car and I've tested stacks of cars. So that
11:13 gives you an idea of just how good the standard sound system is even in the base model.
11:18 Now there's stacks more features here. I won't run through them now but I will mention two
11:21 things. One is our dash cam and the other is sentry mode. Now these are important features
11:26 because what you're able to do when you're not with the car is enable sentry mode. Sentry
11:31 mode allows the car to basically act as a surveillance system and if anyone comes too
11:35 close to it or tries to unlock the doors it'll start recording front, back and also out the
11:40 sides and it'll present a message on the screen that says you're being recorded. If they then
11:44 break into the car it will play music at maximum volume to try and deter them but most importantly
11:49 it's going to retain all of that footage. In addition to that it also comes built in
11:53 with a dash cam. Now the dash cam is really important because when you are driving out
11:58 on the road if someone cuts you off or anything happens it's recording all of that information
12:02 including the events that lead up to it. It's recording out the front, back and the sides
12:06 as well so you have full 360 coverage of your car. So really cool setup and I love that
12:11 this all comes standard with the car and they add features over time. So as you get new
12:15 features that come to the car it comes over as a software update, installs overnight while
12:19 you're asleep and then bobs your uncle you have new features. You may have noticed as
12:23 well that I didn't mention anything about Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. It doesn't
12:26 have either of those systems. Look it's not the end of the world but I think it would
12:30 be nice to actually have those systems in here because the native voice recognition
12:33 system and the native messaging system doesn't really work that well so just let Apple come
12:38 in and do their thing. I think it would make this a whole lot better. Also there are some
12:41 features here that you have to pay monthly for. So when you buy the car you get a 30
12:45 day premium subscription but then each month after that you're paying $10 and that gives
12:50 you access to things like live traffic, Spotify, video streaming as well, all the services
12:53 that are going to chew through data. Now I mentioned earlier the phone app. I want to
12:57 show you how this works. So this is what the home screen looks like when you get into the
13:00 Tesla app. You've got the name of your car which this press car is unimaginatively just
13:04 called Model Y, your battery charge and also the status of the car whether it's parked
13:08 or driving. When it is driving this shows a graphic of it moving. You can then easily
13:12 lock and unlock the car, adjust your fan speed, adjust charging and then open boots front
13:17 or rear if you need to. You can see here this shows you the status of it with the back door
13:21 open and then you can also flash the lights, honk the horns, start the car, vent the car
13:26 as well. Because this isn't my car you can't see this in this app but when it is your vehicle
13:32 you can actually then give access to other people through the app. So if I needed to
13:36 give Igor access to my car, don't worry I never would allow him to drive one of my cars
13:40 but if I did need to I could come into here, share this with his phone and as long as he
13:44 has the Tesla app it will then give him access to the car, allow him to drive it. I can set
13:48 speed limits and a valet mode if I need to. So really clever setup and shows you just
13:54 how advanced this is. Other cool features, location of the car, it shows you exactly
13:58 where it is but this is also where I can send other locations to the car if I need to. I
14:02 can schedule my charging for either departure or off-peak charge times and then finally
14:07 down here I can buy upgrades for the car. So here I'd be able to buy things like the
14:11 full self-driving package, not that you want to spend 10 grand on that because it doesn't
14:15 really work but yeah you can upgrade it through there if you need to. So love this app, it
14:20 is well and truly the best in the business and it's probably one of the things that draws
14:24 me to this car and why I wanted to buy one. There are no other manufacturers that do something
14:28 like this that gives you full control over the car. I know what you're thinking as well,
14:32 what happens Paul if your battery dies? Given this acts as the car key and you just need
14:36 to have it in your pocket to open and start the car. You can use your normal key or alternatively
14:41 anyone with a phone, you can simply log into your Tesla account through their phone and
14:46 you can then unlock the car or someone else that has access to your car can unlock it
14:49 as well. So yeah it's a pretty straightforward system and very easy to use. What about your
14:54 safety tech? So you have autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection,
14:59 so this is entirely driven by a camera system. You have an auto-dimming rear vision mirror.
15:04 Just above this you have another camera that's looking back into the cabin. This is used
15:08 to collect data on I guess what the driver's awareness is like while they're driving. You
15:13 can switch that off and not send any data if required. Your blind spot monitoring is
15:17 built into this section of the car. You don't have any notice there on the wing mirrors
15:21 in terms of other cars that are in your blind spot. You have a lane departure warning and
15:25 a lane keeping assistant in the form of autopilot. So autopilot comes standard with every Model
15:31 3 and Model Y. Full self-driving on the other hand, which is the strangely named feature
15:36 that allows the car to drive effectively on its own but isn't legal yet in Australia,
15:41 that is an optional package. It's a $10,000 software upgrade but each car comes with the
15:45 hardware to allow that. Autopilot though does allow you to do features like radar cruise
15:50 control, so that's distance-based cruise control using just the camera system and it also keeps
15:55 your vehicle within the lanes. This typically tends to work well. When I had our Model 3
15:59 it did a lot of phantom braking, which is where it would brake even though there was
16:02 nothing in front of us. I think they've ironed that stuff out. I haven't experienced any
16:05 of that in the Model Y at the moment but TBC, I'll report back if that happens. In terms
16:10 of parking, there's front and rear parking sensors and a 180 degree view camera. I'll
16:15 show you what that looks like. So you can see clearly out the back there the camera
16:19 quality is not too bad. You can see our suitcase. This is the side view down the sides of the
16:23 car and then when you do put it into reverse you actually get a readout here in terms of
16:27 your exact distance to that item with a little line there to show you as you're getting closer
16:31 to it as well. It also has a miss acceleration prevention, so if you are parked up against
16:36 a wall or there's an object in front of you, it won't let you go full throttle straight
16:39 into it. Let's talk about practicality and we'll start off with your connectivity. So
16:43 you've got two wireless phone chargers up the top here. In addition to that, in this
16:48 section of the centre console you have two USB-C ports. There's an additional USB-A port
16:52 inside the glove box that drives the dash cam and the Sentry system. There's a 12 volts
16:57 in here. What about storage for your phone? Well you can sit it there up on the wireless
17:01 phone charger or like you can literally just put it anywhere else there's stacks of room.
17:06 Coffee cup fits into there nicely. It doesn't really move around too much. There's no teeth
17:11 there though. It'd be nice to see teeth to stop the bottle moving around but it fits
17:16 in okay. It just sort of shifts around while you're driving. This fits inside the door
17:20 as well, carpet lined. Let's have a look if our big bottle fits inside the door. No, it
17:26 doesn't. Yes, it does actually. There you go. Excellent. Now other storage, have a look
17:31 at this. So underneath the wireless chargers you have this huge storage area down here.
17:37 Then in addition to that you have a second storage area down here. Really is just excellent
17:42 when it comes to sort of finding places for your odds and ends. And then glove boxes over
17:46 here, you open that through the screen. So you just press that and there it is. That
17:50 is reasonably sized as well. In terms of your comfort, what features have you got? Well
17:54 you have dual zone automatic climate control. You bring up this menu here. You can both
17:59 change your temperatures. You have seat heating for both the front and second row. Heated
18:04 steering wheel and you've got some interesting functions here as well. So it's kind of, you
18:10 know, if you go camping and that sort of stuff this will be useful. But what you can do is
18:13 put it into camp mode. So if you are sleeping inside the car it'll just run your climate
18:17 control system. You can put it into dog mode. So if you do have a dog in the car it will
18:21 come up with a big message saying I have the air conditioner running. Or you can just keep
18:25 the air conditioner running when you're outside of the car. You can schedule when you want
18:28 the air conditioning to start. You also have a HEPA filter within the car as well. So that
18:33 means that you are getting filtrated air into the cabin as you drive. Seat controls, you
18:38 have electric seat adjustment for both the driver and front passenger. You can go forwards,
18:42 backwards, backwards. You can go forwards, backwards. You can lift the front of the seat,
18:47 the back of the seat. You have lumbar adjustment for the driver. You then also have memory
18:51 for both the driver and front passenger that can be linked to your profile. And then on
18:54 the steering front you have both tilt and reach adjustment for the steering wheel. On
18:59 our reach test this is all easy to reach while you're driving. The problem is with this new
19:04 operating system design everything is really small and just a little bit tricky to kind
19:09 of just accurately hit while you're driving. So you are doing a lot of fiddling and taking
19:13 your eyes off the road when you really should be concentrating. So I think this could be
19:16 improved in terms of the layout and the functionality.
19:19 Okay, second row of the Model Y. Knee room is really good. Toe room is fantastic. Head
19:26 room is pretty good as well. This is also minimalist but the thing you'll notice here
19:31 is the flat floor. Being an inherently designed EV platform it means you don't have a big
19:36 hump here. It means it's easier to just load things in and just have them sitting there,
19:40 especially if you have someone in the centre. They don't need to be straddling a driveline
19:43 hub. Two USB-C charging ports there. Air vents down here. Matte pockets in the back of the
19:48 seats. You have a centre armrest here with two cup holders so you can drop your bottle
19:53 into there. You also have rubber edges on that to keep your bottle in place. Now this
19:58 is a 40/20/40 split folding centre so you can drop this down if you do need access to
20:05 the back or if you just want to have another thing to rest your arm on. You've also got
20:08 ISOFIX points in your outboard seats and three top tether points as well.
20:13 One thing I thought I'd point out while I'm here, this uses an electronic door strike
20:18 as well to get out of the car but the problem is when the power dies on the car this doesn't
20:23 actually work and a lot of manufacturers that use this type of system have a mechanical
20:27 lever to let you out of the car if you are trapped. This only has that on the front so
20:32 if you are in a position where the power's gone out for whatever reason you need to get
20:35 out of the car you're going to have to climb over into the front row to get out of the
20:39 car. There is an ability to open the door using something beneath here but it is hard
20:43 to access and it's not immediately obvious that it's there so that is a little bit disappointing.
20:48 But in terms of space here compared to the Model 3 there is stacks more room here. In
20:52 the Model 3 it's kind of a little bit cramped here but you could comfortably sit here for
20:56 a long distance drive as an adult and you don't feel sort of too claustrophobic either
21:00 so yeah, really impressive setup back here.
21:02 And finally our window test. So it's auto up and down. Let's see if it goes all the
21:06 way down. It doesn't go all the way down, that's annoying. So it's only like three quarters
21:09 of the way down but anyway.
21:13 Let's talk cargo space. So I mentioned earlier that one of the big advantages of this over
21:17 a Model 3 is cargo space. Have a look at that. You have a massive amount of room here and
21:23 I'll show you why it gets even bigger very quickly. So you have a little over 850 litres
21:27 of cargo available just in this standard setting. Off to the sides you have places to store
21:32 things but beneath the cargo floor you have a huge section there where you can drop things
21:36 into and then also up the front there you have additional underfloor storage too. So
21:41 it is a very versatile space and if you are trying to jam pack the car full of things
21:45 for a trip away there's plenty of little nooks in there to store your things. I'll show you
21:49 what it looks like with our bags in. So laptop bag there and suitcase just there. So stacks
21:56 of room in there. And one of the big advantages here is that you have a really high loading
22:00 aperture so when you do start stacking this up you're not going to have the boot interfering
22:04 all that much which is important. Some of the sleeker looking SUVs cut down a little
22:08 too fine here and you can't actually load your things in. So this is a much better arrangement.
22:13 Now in addition to this space you also have storage in the front and that is just over
22:17 100 litres. That's very useful because when you fill the boot you go, oh I remember there's
22:21 actually storage up the front and you can stick some other stuff in there. But if you
22:24 do want to expand this space a little more you have these electronic releases off to
22:28 the side. That pushes that space out to over 2000 litres.
22:32 Now before we go for a drive I want to run you through charging. Now the charge port
22:35 is behind here. The door opens there. You have both AC and DC charging. AC uses three
22:41 phase or up to three phase at up to 11 kilowatts. Now this is going to be a little bit confusing
22:47 now and also when we go for a drive because Tesla is a little bit secretive with the information
22:52 they share about these cars and because we are one of the first markets outside of China
22:56 to actually get this entry level version of the Model Y, I don't know exactly how fast
23:01 it can charge on DC because the entry level version of the Model 3 with this same drivetrain
23:06 effectively can't charge as fast as a long range or a performance. So the DC charging
23:11 is either going to be around 170 kilowatts or it's going to be around 210 kilowatts or
23:16 potentially it's going to be able to charge it up to 250 like the more expensive versions
23:20 of the Model 3. So what I'll do in this section and also our driving section, I'm going to
23:24 leave a comment down in the comment section below to give you an idea of what the exact
23:28 figures are when I finally get the correct information.
23:34 So I've just hit the road in the Model Y. It is so wet here today so it'll be a good
23:40 chance to see how this performs in the wet I guess but yeah, won't be able to drive too
23:44 fast which is a little disappointing but given this is the base model, might do some faster
23:48 driving when we get our hands on the performance. Now this being the base model only has a single
23:53 electric motor and it's rear wheel drive so unlike the Polestar 2 which is front wheel
23:58 drive, they've gone down the path of giving these that dynamic feel behind the wheel.
24:02 Also gives you a bit more boot space up the front which is kind of a double benefit there
24:06 when it comes to just using a rear electric motor. So as I mentioned before, this is going
24:11 to be just a little bit confusing because we don't have exact figures from Tesla. I'm
24:15 going to have to give you my best estimate at some of these figures. If I do get an update,
24:19 I'll put it in the comment section below but my estimation is that this electric motor
24:24 produces around 220 kilowatts of power and given that this weighs around 2000 kilograms,
24:32 it's adequate for a vehicle this size but Tesla's pretty clever in the way that they've
24:36 tuned their electric cars so even when they have a smaller output electric motor, it doesn't
24:42 make it feel starved or really slow. They give it a lot of pep off the line and then
24:46 it gradually increases as you go. Even now if I go to put the boot in, it pins you back
24:51 in the seat and does what you expect an electric car to do and you often don't get that in
24:55 electric cars that are low powered once they're moving so I like the fact that they are giving
25:00 you that response even if you haven't bought the performance or the long range version.
25:04 Just like other Tesla products, you have a couple of driving modes that you access through
25:08 the screen here and those driving modes are pretty straightforward so you have chill and
25:12 standard. If you go over to chill, if I bury the throttle, it puts you in the back of the
25:17 seat but it doesn't really slow in gently whereas if you go to standard, you bury the
25:21 throttle, it kind of just pushes you in the back straight away. The steering can then
25:24 be adjusted through comfort, standard and sport. I find the sport mode's just a bit
25:28 silly because it just adds all this artificial weight. Comfort mode is actually ideally the
25:33 best even if you are driving fast, it just gives you the feedback that you need through
25:36 the wheel and you don't have to have the artificial loading that is really unnecessary in a car
25:40 like this.
25:41 And finally, you also have stopping modes so creep, roll and hold. So they will vary
25:47 the way that the car performs when it comes to a stop. So in creep for example, when you
25:51 are stationary and you let off the brake, it will creep forward like an internal combustion
25:55 car normally would. Roll on the other hand won't do anything, it will just sit there
25:59 and roll back if you're on a downhill or forwards if you're on the opposite sort of ascent and
26:05 then you have hold. Now hold is pretty much my favourite mode so it maximises your regen
26:10 and as you roll out of the throttle, it brings the car to a gradual stop and then when it
26:14 does come to a gradual stop, it engages the auto hold function. You can actually see the
26:18 brake pedal moving as it gets to the end of its travel to hold the car into position.
26:23 This mode is fantastic, we've used this for what, two years in our old Model 3 and every
26:27 single time I went for a drive, unless I needed to kind of brake really quickly, I was able
26:32 to rely on that mode to pull us up in almost perfect precision, so very impressed with
26:37 that. I'll call out as well with the regen, when you do roll out of the throttle, you
26:40 can see this green indicator go all the way to the other end, that's just telling you
26:43 that it is pumping energy back into the batteries and then when you put the throttle on, it goes
26:47 up the other side. Now what about your efficiency? So a driving range of about 450km on the WLTP
26:53 cycle means an efficiency of around 14kWh per 100km. Let's have a look at what we're
26:59 achieving here, this car is pretty much brand new, we picked it up straight from the showroom.
27:05 We're sitting on 17.4kWh per 100km, so it is above that figure but still pretty impressive
27:11 given we've been having a fang around here, so I'm quite happy with that figure and it
27:15 is pretty reasonable for a car this size. Now let's talk about the ride. It is not very
27:22 good, so look, I don't know what Tesla's aiming for with this but when you drive it in and
27:27 around the city on these 20-inch alloy wheels, it feels like it has no suspension, it kind
27:32 of feels like it's rigidly connected to the car. It feels very much like a BMW M product
27:38 and in the car world, a BMW M product is probably about as extreme as you want to go before
27:43 it gets irritating and I find that completely bizarre, especially when you consider that
27:47 this is a family car, it is the entry-level family car and yes I understand that this
27:52 is on the optional 20-inch alloy wheels but there is just so much firmness in the spring
27:57 rate and also the damping as well, it really is quite relentless, so when you do have it
28:01 loaded with people, you feel literally every single bump on the road, so it is pretty disappointing
28:06 in my opinion. But to caveat that, the car that I've ordered is the entry-level, I did
28:11 want the long-range but it's not available yet in Australia, but I got the entry-level
28:14 with the 19-inch alloy wheels and I went down that path primarily because our Model 3 was
28:20 too firm for my liking and I didn't want to get a Model Y Performance knowing that it
28:23 would probably be similar, I didn't realise it would be this firm even on the base model.
28:28 Now one of the benefits of having a much firmer ride is that you will have a whole lot more
28:33 compliance over our sine waves, so I'll dial this up to 130, maximum speed limit in Australia
28:38 and it pretty much doesn't move over the sine waves, it sits nice and flat and that's exactly
28:47 what you'd expect from a car that is really firmly sprung. Now I did mention there's no
28:51 sport mode but we'll give it a little punt here through our circuit, keeping in mind
28:54 it is incredibly wet so I'm not going to be able to go all that quick but it'll give us
28:58 a good idea of what this is like. Normally this corner brings out a lot of understeering
29:02 cars and oversteer, that is impressive. So I don't know if it's the tyres that are giving
29:09 us so much traction here but it's almost like the road's not wet, I wasn't expecting that,
29:15 I thought this would be sort of all over the shop with this kind of weather. It's actually
29:19 moving along really nicely along the back here as well. I do see a couple of flashes
29:23 there from the stability control light but it really isn't overly intrusive. This is
29:28 a very low friction surface up the back here as well. Wow, that is really, really impressive.
29:35 I was not expecting that, so I think one of the benefits here of having a chassis that
29:41 is so firmly sprung is that it really holds onto the road nicely, you've got that low
29:45 centre of gravity thanks to the batteries, but when it is nice and firm it's basically
29:50 not shifting at all through the corner and moving that weight around and it means that
29:53 you can actually drive it faster in the wet and get great response out of it. Dial up
29:58 the throttle on the back here, it's flat to the board now, it's picking up really nicely.
30:04 That is bloody awesome. OK, so yeah, look, the ride is very harsh in and around town
30:11 but to be honest it pays dividends when it comes to handling and performance. Look, I
30:16 think if Tesla is targeting a BMW SUV as a competitor, this really lines up nicely. This
30:22 drives and feels like a BMW SUV where it's more about sportiness than comfort. I just
30:27 wish it had adaptive damping. That would then give you the sportiness when you need it and
30:31 then the comfort when you just want to be driving around normally. Tesla claims a 0-100
30:36 time of just under 7 seconds. This is how it went up against our stopwatch.
30:50 Let's talk about your road noise. So one of the big benefits here is Tesla's gone down
30:54 the path of double glazed glass and in addition to that there's a lot of extra padding that
30:59 I've noticed here between this and my Model 3. That means when you are driving out on
31:03 the road and on course chip country roads, it's actually not too bad in the cabin. You
31:07 still get a bit of tyre noise coming from those low rolling resistant tyres but to be
31:12 honest it's nowhere near as bad as our Model 3 was. You used to get a lot of booming inside
31:15 the cabin and it was really a little bit overwhelming if you're on a very course chip road at highway
31:20 speeds. This on the other hand is pretty subdued and not a bad place to be seated for a long
31:25 distance drive. What about your visibility? So what I really like about these cars is
31:30 you just have so much window around you so that means you get very clear visibility out
31:34 the car. So I can see all the way out the front there, the wing mirrors are nice and
31:38 big. I've got big side glass here as well and in terms of rear visibility, the envelope
31:43 is really narrow and it's pretty tricky to see out of but you do have all of your parking
31:47 sensors and cameras for low speed driving. Now the wing mirrors don't have a blind spot
31:51 monitor built into them. That is instead on the car here and it lights up when you do
31:55 have something in your blind spot. I don't think it's a great system. I'd prefer to just
31:58 have a blind spot monitor in the wing mirror like most other cars. It's just the most convenient
32:03 location and then when you do put the indicator on you get the camera come up down here to
32:06 show you what's in your blind spot. Again, pretty stupid location for it because you
32:10 have to take eyes off the road and go all the way down here to have a look at what's
32:13 going on and I just think that really needs to be up here somewhere instead. The other
32:17 thing that I think is a bit silly is the speedometer location. There is no head up display and
32:21 I think this is one of the major downfalls of this car. It really needs something ahead
32:25 of the driver, especially here in Australia where we have such strict speed limits. You
32:28 don't want to get stuck relying on this tiny little speedo readout that you have to take
32:32 your eyes off the road to see every time. I want to mention this as well. So it actually
32:37 displays exactly what the car is seeing. So you can see we're approaching a stop sign
32:40 there. There's some cones out on the road and then as I turn left here it will then
32:45 pick up the road markings as we start driving along. So yeah, it's an interesting system.
32:51 You can then sort of scroll around if you want. You can see as we come to this bend,
32:55 I'm not sure I was going around the bend as well. So yeah, it's interesting. Sometimes
33:01 it's not overly accurate but I think it's just a good representation of what's happening
33:05 ahead of you. Finally, turning circle 12.1 metres which isn't too bad for a rear wheel
33:09 drive car and just to recap, a towing capacity of 1600 kilos with a braked trailer.
33:17 So the Tesla Model Y, I've got to be completely upfront with you guys. I ordered this before
33:21 I actually had the chance to drive this press car here. So I was buying it not knowing that
33:25 it would be as impressive as it is now. So what I like about it, we used to own a Model
33:30 3. It wasn't really big enough for us when our daughter came along. It wasn't high enough
33:34 and it kind of didn't have enough room for all the stuff that we have to take with her.
33:37 This completely fixes all of that. It sits higher so loading kids and babies in is much
33:41 easier. It's got stacks of storage and they've fixed a lot of the things that I didn't like
33:45 about the Model 3 like wireless phone charging. It's all USB-C now. It really is just a better
33:50 integration of all of these features. But it is let down by the ride. It is just way
33:55 too firm as a family SUV and I'm hoping that the car that I've ordered with the 19-inch
34:00 alloy wheels which is one inch smaller than these is actually going to be significantly
34:04 better because it could be a deal breaker for some people and I really don't understand
34:07 why Tesla has gone down the path of creating what is effectively a class-leading SUV, let
34:13 alone a class-leading electric SUV, and then made it as firm as it is. So that is really
34:18 disappointing in my book. So let's see what it's like when I finally get my car. I'm hoping
34:22 that it is better and if you are aware of any aftermarket stuff that people are doing
34:25 to these to fix how firm the ride is, let me know in the comments section below. If
34:29 you are a fan of performance driving, driving really fast and all that sort of stuff, you're
34:33 probably going to like the ride because it does improve road holding and it is staggeringly
34:37 good through corners despite weighing so much and it being completely wet today. So let
34:43 me know what you think in the comments section below. Have you ordered one? Will the ride
34:47 put you off if it is too firm for you? Or are you happy with a firm ride? Do you not
34:51 really care about that? Let me know in the comments section below. If you did enjoy this
34:55 video, please make sure you like it, please make sure you share it with your mates, and
34:59 if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon. But
35:02 until next time, drive safely.