Tesla Model Y review: The best-selling car in the world just got better

Shall we talk about you-know-who? Actually, let’s not. Whatever you think of the company’s figurehead, the Tesla Model Y is an influential enough car that it can stand on its own two feet.

In fact, in 2023 and 2024, the Model Y has been the best-selling car in the world. Now Tesla has updated it to keep it at the top of that pile. When such a significant car gets a major update, we’re curious what it’s like, and we assume you are too.

The Model Y has been around since 2020. It getting facelifted after five years could almost make you believe that Tesla is a normal car company. The car’s had various updates to its battery and specification in smaller model year updates, but this is the update that you can actually see. The headline news of the Model Y ‘Juniper’ are the styling changes and some comfort upgrades.

At the front, there’s a Cybertruck-inspired light bar, with the main headlights moving to separate units underneath, while at the rear, the previously quite rounded tailgate becomes more angular. There’s a new light bar and a slightly more pronounced spoiler lip. Apparently, this produces some more downforce to keep the car planted despite the softer suspension.

That’s the other headline change: in response to criticism from anyone who’s ever driven a Model Y, the suspension has been made more compliant, the steering less hyperactive and there’s better noise insulation with acoustic glass.

There are no notable powertrain changes, although Tesla does claim to have made the car slightly more efficient by way of improved aero. There are still two battery packs: a 63kWh LFP unit, and an 83kWh NMC one. The Standard Range car comes exclusively with a single 210kW (279bhp) rear motor; the Long-Range version comes either a 230kW (308bhp) rear motor, or dual motors producing 280kW (375bhp). Annoyingly, Tesla doesn’t quote power figures or battery sizes, so these are the generally accepted figures rather than official ones.

The Model Y continues to use a mix of steel and aluminium for its structure, including a few very large castings. Tesla seems to be the only manufacturer who can keep the weight of its electric family SUV under two tonnes (albeit only just). New reinforcements and various hidden design changes are said to have increased the torsional rigidity. Suspension is by double wishbones up front and a multi-link at the rear.

While most carmakers are on a mission to strip complexity out of their interiors, Tesla is slowly adding extra stuff in. Don’t get your hopes up: it’s still minimalist to the extreme, with essentially no buttons, but the materials have had a bit of an upgrade and ambient lighting has appeared.

Obviously, the style still isn’t to all tastes, but it somehow doesn’t look as generic as some of the Chinese contenders, and palate of materials and colours is quite cohesive. Even the door bins are soft-touch and carpeted, which isn’t the case on some much more expensive cars.

The British Leyland level build quality that Tesla became known for at one point is long gone, but a loose trim piece in the headliner of our test car still caused a few squeaks.

The centre touchscreen is mostly familiar. As all-screen interfaces go, it doesn’t get much better: it’s extremely clear, logical and responsive, with important functions just one press away.

The lack of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is annoying, but over the years Tesla has expanded its library of third-party apps. As well as Spotify, there’s built-in Apple Music and Podcasts, Tidal, etc, so it’s not the problem that it could be.

Tesla’s upgrade efforts don’t extend to a dedicated driver’s display, which will be a problem for some. I quite like the clear view ahead that this gives, and all your important information is very clear. I just wish that a third of the screen wasn’t dedicated to the ADAS display, which shows you what the car can see.

In the back, the big news is the addition of a small touchscreen, which means that rear passengers no longer need to ask the front occupants to turn on the heated seats. The screen also does media, YouTube and the like.

The Model Y doesn’t have class-leading knee- or headroom, but they’re good enough, and because the bench is set fairly high, the seating position is comfortable. The backrest can now also recline electrically.

It’s with storage space where the Model Y blows away the competition. The boot is enormous by itself, and that’s before you count the underfloor storage and the big frunk. You can drop the rear seatbacks electronically. A parcel shelf is standard (unlike on early Model Ys), but the way it folds feels home-made. We’d expect a roller cover here.

We’ve so far only driven the Long Range AWD, which is very fast indeed. Unless you absolutely need four-wheel drive, we’d always go for the single motor.

Tesla tends to tune its cars in such a way that they remind you at all times of their performance potential. In other words, the accelerator can feel quite jumpy. I prefer to drive the Model Y in ‘Chill’ mode, which softens off the response, but that also limits power, even if you floor it.

One lesser-reported change that makes a big difference is the addition of brake-by-wire. Tesla used to be one of the only EV makers that didn’t have a blended brake pedal. Instead, you got very heavy one-pedal driving while the brake pedal just acted on the discs.

The signature one-pedal drive mode is still the default, but you now have the option of a gentler setting, which lets you control most of the regen with the brake pedal. This makes it much easier to drive smoothly.

The new Model Y still feels fundamentally Tesla-like to drive, but better in every way to what I remember from the early Model Ys.

Despite the suspension changes, it’s still on the firmer, noisier end of the spectrum, but the worst edges have definitely been taken off. The ride is very firm and connected, but less so than before, and rounds off sharper intrusions fairly well. Similarly, the level of road noise is now nothing remarkable – in a positive or negative sense.

While the steering has been slowed down from 2 to 2.4 turns lock to lock, it remains darty off-centre, but with rather remote feel. The vague feel has vanished; instead the weighting can be slightly inconsistent. Add in the relative lack of body roll, and from your elevated driving position, the Model Y feel tippy rather than planted.

With the battery pack in the floor, it’s perfectly stable of course, and there’s plenty of grip, and a bit of rear bias to the power delivery, so you can easily make progress on a twisty road. You wouldn’t do so for the fun of it though.

All Model Ys come with ‘Autopilot’ as standard. You can upgrade to ‘enhanced autopilot’ and ‘full-self driving capability’ for rather a lot of money. In Europe and the UK, where there’s stricter regulation of that sort of thing than in the US, we wouldn’t bother, because the differences are minor.

As a conventional adaptive cruise control system with lane following, Autopilot is okay. It’s smooth enough, but a bit slow to accelerate. Autosteer can only be enabled while stationary, and then always comes on when you engage the cruise control.

Otherwise, the ADAS features are relatively unintrusive. The lane keep assist is quite mild, and I suspect the overspeed warning just wasn’t working on the test car. Even if it was, it would be easy to disable.

Despite all the advances of other manufacturers, Tesla is still ahead when it comes to EV tech. It averaged 16.4 kWh/100km (3.8mpkWh) after a mixed day of driving. Okay, conditions were ideal, but that’s still impressive and would make for about 485km (300 miles) – considerably more than you’d get from a Hyundai Ioniq 5. You’d likely get even more from the Long-Range RWD.

Save for a paint colour and some bigger wheels, all Teslas come fully-loaded, so while the Model Y looks expensive compared to the base versions of rival models, there’s little in it compared to high-spec alternatives, and the monthly rates are looking quite attractive too.

We’ve yet to do a DC charging test on this car to verify how long it holds its 250kW peak speed. From previous experience, Teslas are no longer the fastest-charging EVs on the market, but very competitive nonetheless.

The Supercharger network is no longer the trump card it used to be now that cars from other makers can use some of them. Some remain Tesla-exclusive, though, and a Tesla’s navigation is still plugged into live info about which superchargers are busy or out of service in a way that others’ aren’t. As a result, Tesla’s EV route planning is still second to none.

For all the hype and love-hate culture around the Tesla brand, a Model Y is really a car you buy with your head rather than your heart. Apart from being fast, it’s merely fine to drive. Some rivals are more comfortable, handle more naturally and give you more options for regenerative braking. The interior’s quite plain but hard to fault for functionality.

What the Model Y is brilliant at is the sensible stuff. It has all the rear-seat space you probably need, and even more luggage room. It also outdoes all rivals for energy efficiency and range. That all applied to the outgoing one, but this new one adds a bunch of useful new features, improves the driveability and takes the edge off the ride. There are still Tesla quirks to put up with, not least the brand’s image, but as a practical, rangey family EV, it's hard to argue with.

Move Electric verdict: 8/10

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