Tesla Model Y: Musk’s new i-Pace botherer
Tesla’s Elon Musk will get you. The Model Y is his latest bid for your custom
On the road to electrification and the race to Mars, no one is ahead of Tesla and Space X boss Elon Musk. But with the Model Y, perhaps his most important model yet, the American visionary will have to get used to a new perspective: where the Roadster and Models S, X and 3 were all pioneers, the Model Y will chase rivals from more established mainstream makers – at least in Europe, where the first cars aren’t expected until 2021. By then VW’s ID.4 will be with us, the ID.3 firmly established, and Audi’s Q4 e-Tron and the BMW iX4 vying for your cash.
As a semi-compact SUV, the Model Y is both familiar and alien at the same time. Technically closely related to the Model 3 (the UK’s bestselling car in April, albeit in a collapsed market), the Model Y also looks like the 3, making for a relatively elegant, smooth and dainty machine by crossover standards. But the hint of Model X in the silhouette is no illusion; Tesla has stretched the Model 3 7cm wider, 6cm longer and 18cm taller to create the roomier Y.
Climb in and, while you sit a touch higher than you do in the Model 3, the difference isn’t marked. The good news is there’s the same calmness thanks to the almost switch-free cockpit. The bad news is that the nose is so short and stubby you can’t see the front of the car when you’re behind the wheel – thankfully there are cameras all round.
That elevated roofline makes a real difference in the back; there’s now sucient headroom (tall passengers can feel squeezed in the back of the Model 3), and in the Y you can adjust the angle of the three-part backrest. Fold the seats flat to access 1900 litres of space for the movement of new white goods acquired on scarcely believable finance but, as spacious as the luggage compartment may be, you can’t imagine the optional third-row seating being of use to anyone too old to understand Minecraft.
The Y will be available initially in Performance (tested here) and Long Range guises. Both are twin-motor and all-wheel drive, with the Performance sacrificing some range (298 miles, estimated, versus 314 for the Long Range) for 3.5sec 0-60mph (versus 4.8sec) and an entirely academic and pointless 150mph (versus 135mph).
Get moving and the affection you’re probably already nurturing for the Y is likely to blossom rapidly. Progress is quiet (wind and road noise, despite the Performance’s big 21-inch wheels, are well suppressed), refined, calming like a good therapist and, when you need to trade serenity for speed, unfeasibly rapid. Little this side of a Porsche Taycan can live with the Model Y’s startling turn of speed; an incongruous truth given that one’s a four-seat sports car and the Tesla a family wagon (albeit one likely to cost £60k).
Like the 3, the Model Y is a more engaging drive than the bigger Teslas, certainly the bulky, aloof X. The Y’s steering is nicely direct, the brakes strong (choose your level of regenerative braking on the 15-inch touchscreen), body control way better than most crossovers, and the grip and all-wheel-drive traction generous in the extreme. The trade-off for this unlikely appetite for carrying corner speed is an unyielding edge to the ride quality.
First verdict
The battery-electric crossover battle is hotting up, and the Y is a compelling i-Pace rival; fast, pretty, practical and good fun ★★★★
Little this side of a Porsche Taycan can live with the Y’s startling turn of speed