Tesla Model Y 2022 Review

This is the new Tesla Model Y, and it is effectively a Tesla Model 3 that’s been like stretched in Photoshop. Now really, look, I’ve stretched the Model 3 in Photoshop. Looks the same. Anyway, in this video, I’m going to talk you around the exterior, the interior. I’m going to explain it’s text, how practical it is, and of course I’m going to take it for a drive. I will even launch it from 0 to 60 mph because I’m Mat Watson, and you’re watching Carwow.

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Let’s start this video by talking about the design of the Model Y. So like a Model 3, but taller. Though it does have a hatchback, so it’s quite sloppy at the rear end. Here at the side, wheel sizes start at 19 inches rising to 20 for the long range, but they go all the way up to 21 on the performance model. One thing about the performance, it has low suspension, which could be good to fill this kind of gappy wheel arch. Down the side, actually quite like the profile of it, looks all right, and you got like the classic Tesla poppier door handles with the black on them, and black window surrounds down the sides. Yeah, just classic Tesla face really, isn’t it? Just a bit bigger, more upright than the Model 3. And it’s randomly flashing its lights at me, because it’s a Tesla and it’s alive. Now, the starting price, I don’t know what that was all about.

Anyway, the starting price of this car is 55,000 pounds. But if you want to check out the best deals on the electric selection of cars, click on the pop out banner there for the link in the description to go to Carwow. Here on the inside, the design is just like a Model 3. So very minimalist, got wide expansive dash, big screen in the middle where you control absolutely everything. Not just the sat nav, you have infotainment system, but all climate controls and absolutely everything for the car. Which is a good thing in some ways, because it keeps things simple in terms of button clutter. But sometimes it can be a bit of a fuss to get through stuff. That said, the infotainment system is fast, it’s responsive and it’s nice and crisp. Then you got the usual quality of Tesla, which I actually think is pretty decent.

It’s like the perceived quality. What I can’t be so sure of, is whether it’s going to start to fall apart a little bit quicker than a comparative car say from Audi, BMW or Mercedes. In fact, if you want to see my review of an SUV from one of those firms, click on the pop out banner there for the link in the description for that. As a practicality, once again, it’s like a Model 3. So you’ve got big door bins, you’ve got storage under here, loads of it. You’ve got just two pads there for your wallet charging of your mobile phones. More storage under here, some cup holders, the glove box, which you have to open through the screen. Or you can just do this, please work. Open glove box. There you go. Decent size glove box. The thing that is different to the Model 3, is the fact that obviously, you’re sitting up higher. It doesn’t feel quite as sporty because you sit more on this car.

You still got the big windscreen great view out and even better view out because you’re a little bit higher up, and the seating position is nice. The seats in the Tesla are very comfortable. I like them. It’s good. The main benefit you get with this car over the Model 3, is the space in the back. Now, for starters, one of the problems with the Model 3, is that the seat feels quite close to the floor. So you don’t have much under thigh support. You feel a little bit like in a stress position. Not in this one. You feel more like it’s a proper seat. Also look at this, these front seats are jacked up quite a bit so you can really stretch out. That’s awesome. And you can recline these seat backs a bit as well, really is comfy and roomy in the back. Head room is good as well. It’s nice that you’ve got this glass roof, so it lets lots of light back here.

Knee room’s really good, and because you’ve got a flat floor and lots of space there, the middle seat is pretty comfy as well. Liking that, more so liking this, come on, come on. There we go. We got an armrest here. It’s just a shame they don’t cover that so you end up putting your elbow in it. But look at this for some through loading. It’s really wide. I’ll say it again, it’s really wide. They’re good those. Liking this. What is a bit of a fact though, is the Isofix points. They’re just a bit hard to get because you just have to wedge the Isofix bars in between the seats. It’d be better if you had flip up covers however easy it is to fit a child’s seat in here. But yeah, you do end up spending some time to actually get the Isofix anchor points attached. Then once you’ve done it once, you’re going to leave your seat in there, aren’t you?

And there’s plenty of room for even a big bulky rear facing seat. There’s also a couple of USB-C ports there as well. Overall, I’m very impressed with the back seats on this car, it’s good. However, if you want an electric SUV with even more room in the back, click on the pop out banner up there for the link in the description for my review of one. I’m not going to tell you what it is. It’s a secret for now. Now let’s talk about boot space, starting with the front boot, the froot. Look, it’s massive- 117 liters of space. It’s crazy to think that some German manufacturers can’t even figure out how to create any space at all underneath the bonnets of their electric cars. Then there’s the boot at the back, which is even bigger. Well, of course it’s going to be bigger, it’s a rear boot. But would you expect it to be almost eight times bigger?

The capacity here, including this underfloor storage, 854 liters, which is insane. And if you need more space, look, obviously you fold down the seats and you can do it electrically by those releases. And look, you have a completely flat floor. Really good, apart from the fact there’s no tie down points at all. That brings you out to five annoying things about the Tesla Model Y. Here we have a man in the boot. Now, that’s not a bad thing. The bad thing is the fact that you don’t get a parcel shelf with this Tesla Model Y. Now, the man is there to illustrate that look, we have an iPhone there, and yes, Tesla does give you rear privacy glass. But if you look in there, you can see the iPhone. Look, there it is. There’s the iPhone. I think I’m going to smash its glass and take the goodies within. I’m talking about the phone, not the man.

It’s a bit of a loss, that while you can just activate the windscreen wipes once by doing that. If you want to change the speed, then you have to actually go onto this screen here. Another thing that’s annoying, is if you want to suddenly alter the mirrors, you have to go into the car settings and press that button and then use this to alter the mirrors, rather than going straight for little moby and doing it quickly. If ever a car needed a heads up display, it’s a Tesla Model Y. Because the only place you can see the speed, is by taking your eyes off the road and looking on the central infotainment screen. What did they make one available for? It’s just stupid. There’s only one ceramic color with a Tesla Model Y, and that’s why. So if you don’t like that, you’re going to have to pay extra for a different color. And they’re rather expensive.

Like there’s red. It may look nice, but it costs 2,100 pounds extra. The reason to get a Model Y over a Model 3, is for the added practicality for families. In other parts of the world, you can get a seven seater version of this car, but not in the UK. Not for now, and Tesla hasn’t even confirmed if you’re going to get it. So if you need to carry more than five people, you’re going to have to sit them in the boot, which isn’t ideal in an electric car with instant performance, because you’ll accelerate and all of a sudden they’ll go, whoop. It’s not all negative though. Here’s five good things about this car. One of Tesla’s USPs, is that you have access to its excellent supercharge network. Another thing is, when you’re programing a destination in the sat nav, it’ll work out your route via various supercharges, so you can always get there with enough charge.

One of the good thing about Teslas, is that they come fully loaded. There are very few options, I think other than the paint, the wheel sizes, a tow hitch, slightly different interior trim. Oh, and the advanced autopilot and Summon feature, which actually, the hardware is fit for in the car anyhow. So if you wanted to fit that at a later date, you can just do an over the air update, simple. All Teslas come with a dog mode, so you can leave your dog in the car and it’ll maintain the temperature that’s safe for the dog. It also leaves a little sign on the digital display, so that if anyone walks past and gets a bit worried for the dog, they can see how long you’re going to be leaving it in the car for, so they don’t need to call the RSPCA to get you arrested. While you’re charging your car, you can do things like go on YouTube or Netflix. Go watch some shows, play a bunch of box sets, whatever, because Eon is a real fun guy.

As part of the software update, you can now have weird things added to your horn. So one of them is a fart sound, so…

[car sounds]

Yeah, of course. Another one is, I don’t know, a goat.

[car sounds]

That doesn’t sound like a goat. And my favorite is this.

[car sounds]

Over the levels. But if you want more levels, you can actually add your own via USB. So here’s some I’ve done.

[car sounds] (Get out of the way you moron!)

That’s appropriate. Here’s another one.

[car sounds] (Oh, hello, sexy face)

Here’s another one.

[car sound] (What’s the matter with you? You need to learn to drive)

And my favorite, the classic.

[car sound] (Look on the pop out banner to go to Carwow)

There are two versions of the Tesla Model Y. There’s the long range, which has two electric motors and 394 horsepower, or there’s a performance, which also has two motors, but 450 horsepower. Now, both cars come with a 70 kWh battery pack, and the maximum range that you can get out of the Tesla Model Y, is 350 miles, which is pretty decent. However, I found another electric SUV, which has an even better range than this Tesla Model Y and I’m going to configure it using the Carwow configurator. If you want to see what the car is and what the deal I’ve got on it through Carwow, you have to click on the pop out banner up there for the link in the description below to check it out. All right, let’s see what this Tesla Model Y is like to drive.

So the first thing I’m noticing on this slightly bumpy road, is that the suspension is a little bit firmer than I’d expect. It seems firmer than in the Model 3. That’s probably because it’s taller and heavier. And so it has to have stiffer springs to stop it leaning so much in the bends. Weird though, is that the steering feels just as quick as in the Model 3, yet because it’s a bigger heavier car, it just doesn’t respond for the rest of the turn quite as well. So it’s got like this false sporty feeling. That said, this car does still go around corners okay. And it has that real point and squat feeling that you get from Teslas, and obviously you got four wheel drive traction, so you can always put its power down without getting in too much of a mess. However, maybe it’s better at low speed. So we’re going into town now, and first thing I’m noticing, is yeah, region’s really good on this.

So I lift off the accelerator. It’s really good for stopping, which is handy when you’re going past a lollipop lady and she’s stopped it to let the kids across the road. So you’re regenning energy really well when you’re coming to a standstill, if you’re controlling it on the throttle. However, if you need to use the normal brakes and you hit the brake pedal hard, one of the good things about this car, is that the brakes feel really, really natural, just like in a normal internal combustion engine car. Whereas with some other EVs, like the feel of the brake pedal is just a bit odd. Not in Teslas though. Teslas are always good. I’ll tell you what Tesla’s all so good at, and that’s all around visibility. Really, really nice. So some other electric SUVs, while you sit up high, you don’t get a really good view forward, but this low dash means that visibility is great forward, it’s great at the side.

It’s not so good out in the back though. No, no, but I can forgive that. Because I can press a button here and just like look [laughs] at the screen. And that’s standard. Do you know what? I’ll probably stick with the standard wheels, because feeling this guy over bumps, it’s a bit jarring at times. Another thing I’ve noticed, is that because you’ve got no parcel shelf, when you go over a bump, you get noise from the suspension sort of reverberating around the cabin. It’s a bit annoying. And when you’re going faster speeds, you get a bit more wind whistle. In fact, the car seems to act a little bit like an echo chamber, because it’s just so big and spacious is in here. But when you’re on the motorway, one of the good things about it, is Tesla’s cruise control system.

So as standard, you get a system that will basically hook you up to a lane and auto steer to keep you in lane. And it’ll also break and accelerate for you to keep your safe distance from the car in front. And you can upgrade that further. So you can do things like change lane for you if you need to overtake and all that kind of stuff. It’s a very, very good system. That’s for maneuverability. Well, when you get around normal roundabouts this size, it’s fine this car. Although people do still like to pull up in front of you, because they can’t quite believe that you might want to go the way from which you just came. That’s another good thing about this car. So if you have an accident, the all-round cameras are constantly recording. So you can download that footage and then you can use that to send to your insurance company.

Look at this, right. Spotting that car there on the curb as well. Look at that. Always keeping you safe. Always got its eyes out, helping you out this car. What’s not helping you is the turning circle. So it’s over 12 meters. Now, I’m going to try to go around this mini roundabout, see if I can go all the way around in one go. No, look, I’ve already cut this arc a little low. No, this is going to be chaos. Sorry. I was never going to make that. People are going to hate me. Yes, they’re hating. There’s a lot of hate. There’s a lot of, there’s going to be more hate now. Sorry, there’s more hate coming for me. More hate. Some more hate please. So you hate me because I’m in a Tesla and you hate me because I can’t go round a mini roundabout without having to do a 10 point turn. It’s not so good.

One thing you can’t fault Teslas for, is their performance. So this long range version of the Model Y is supposed to do 0 to16, 4.8 seconds. But we’re going to see, my specialist timing here, going to launch it. Let’s do it. Yeah, it feels quick. And it just builds the power to seamless. Four point nine five. Slightly slower than claimed, but quicker than the high performance version of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6. And this is the slower Model Y. Yeah. If you get the performance version, it’s supposed to do 0 to 16, 3.5 seconds if it’s a bit slower. This one it’ll be 3.65 seconds. Actually, I didn’t know. I’m going to give it another go. So launch number two. Can you actually do the claim time this time? Yes, 4.8 seconds. That’s better, they’re lies.

[music]

So there was my final verdict on the Tesla Model Y. Should you avoid it, consider it, shortlist it, or should you just go right ahead and buy it? Well, I reckon you should shortlist the Tesla Model Y. It’s a really, really good electric SUV. It’s just that it does face some pretty stiff competition. I really hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, give it a like, if you didn’t give it dislike. Let me know some other reviews you’d like me to do in the comments below, and click on those windows there for some more videos, and on that box there, to go to Carwow, and we’ll help you sell your car and get a great plus for it.