Life is hard on the prime.

The Tesla Mannequin Y is the best-selling electrical automobile in Australia by a good margin in 2024, and its nearest rival is its sedan brother.

That’s regardless of robust competitors from Chinese language manufacturers like BYD, and a big replace to the Mannequin 3 sedan delivering a extra trendy inside, extra comfy journey, and higher refinement than earlier than.

The Mannequin Y hasn’t been handled to the identical replace, however it’s not been left alone totally.

In March, it picked up a trio of latest color choices, and a brand new wheel design for the bottom RWD and Lengthy Vary. Oh, and the value has been slashed a number of occasions all year long.

Is the Mannequin Y nonetheless the king?

How does the Tesla Mannequin Y examine?

View an in depth breakdown of the Tesla Mannequin Y towards equally sized automobiles.

Tesla

Mannequin Y

How a lot does the Tesla Mannequin Y price?

Tesla continues to chop its costs in Australia, to the purpose the place the bottom Mannequin Y RWD is priced consistent with an enormous variety of hybrid, petrol, and diesel mid-sized SUVs.

Costs exclude on-road prices

To see how the Mannequin Y compares with its greatest electrical rivals, use our comparability device.

What’s the Tesla Mannequin Y like on the within?

The Tesla Mannequin Y hasn’t been handled to the identical replace on the Mannequin 3, which suggests you continue to get a correct indicator stalk and drive selector. 

It’s a really minimalist area, with a large display screen in the midst of the dashboard… and little or no else in the best way of luxuries or add-ons, so it’ll take some getting used to. However the software program is all very slick, and when you’re dialled in it’s simple to search out what you’re in search of.

The basics are good, too. The driving place is elevated relative to the Mannequin 3, however the seat is each bit as supportive right here, and there’s loads of adjustment within the powered steering column to permit taller drivers to get comfy.

Every part is saved on a driver profile, and you employ the dials on the steering wheel along with the touchscreen to regulate the wheel and mirrors. Due to the Tesla app, the automobile recognises who’s hopping into the motive force’s seat and adjusts to their preferences robotically. 

The view out over the brief dashboard is panoramic due to the curved windscreen that arches proper up over the motive force’s head. Mixed with the small steering wheel, it helps make the Mannequin Y a enjoyable automobile to level and shoot within the metropolis. 

I want Tesla would offer you a head-up show, although. The pace readout within the prime right-hand nook of the display screen is a bit small, and forces you to take your eyes off the highway to examine one thing that ought to simply be proper in entrance of you.

It’s a disgrace, the remainder of the touchscreen is superb. It’s clearly been designed by somebody who’s spent loads of time utilizing an iPad, with equally slick graphics and fast responses. 

Google Maps appears wonderful on the 15-inch touchscreen, and gives dwell visitors knowledge. It’s additionally plugged into the Tesla Supercharger community, which suggests you possibly can plan longer journeys together with your cost stops with out bothering with A Higher Route Planner or comparable apps. 

Do you miss CarPlay? Even with the built-in apps within the Tesla system, I do. Getting access to your textual content messages and podcasts by way of your system relatively than the automobile remains to be smoother, and Siri is a a lot better voice assistant than Tesla’s disobedient helper. 

Cupboard space up entrance is superb. There are two wi-fi cellphone chargers beneath the dashboard, and a large bin between the seats the place the transmission would often sit in an internal-combustion automobile. 

There’s room for giant bottles within the doorways, and the cupholders are the appropriate dimension for the common Australian latte. 

Rear seat area is strong within the Mannequin Y, though it’s not excellent. The door opening isn’t as huge as on a Toyota RAV4, for instance, however when you’re again there the legroom and headroom are each strong by mid-sized SUV requirements.

The ground is kind of excessive due to the battery pack, which suggests longer-legged passengers can have an ungainly knees-up feeling, however children and normal-sized adults will be capable of get comfy.

Air vents, USB-C ports, and a fold-down central armrest all function, and the glass roof and frameless home windows make it a light-weight and ethereal area. That pays dividends on highway journeys, the place carsick-prone children will profit. 

ISOFIX factors function on the outboard rear seats, and there’s a trio of prime tethers for baby seats. Loading a child into a baby seat could also be more durable within the Mannequin Y than a Subaru Forester, for instance, because the doorways don’t open to 90 levels and the opening isn’t as sq. – which is price maintaining in thoughts. 

Boot area isn’t a problem right here. The primary boot beneath the big, powered elevate gate is very large… and then you definately elevate the ground, to disclose one other large bin that’s excellent for cost cables (supplied you pay additional for them, as Tesla now not throws them in). 

There’s additionally room within the entrance boot for in a single day baggage or any soiled, moist clothes you wish to maintain separate from the principle cabin. 

What’s beneath the bonnet?

Tesla doesn’t quote torque outputs, nor its battery capacities like most manufacturers.

To see how the Mannequin Y compares with its greatest electrical rivals, use our comparability device.

How does the Tesla Mannequin Y drive?

Even after three years on sale, the Mannequin Y stands out due to the polish of all its principal controls. 

There’s prodigious energy beneath your proper foot if you really need it, and near-perfect traction from the all-wheel drive dual-motor setup, however you wouldn’t realize it round city as a result of the accelerator is so easily calibrated. 

Lean on it and also you get clean, silent ahead progress, elevate off and the regenerative braking ramps up easily. It doesn’t attempt to throw you thru the windscreen like a Ford Mustang Mach-E if you step off the throttle, and neatly tapers off as you roll to a cease.

You very, very hardly ever want to make use of the brake pedal. 

Mixed with direct steering (heavier than in most rivals, like a agency handshake), the tremendous polished EV powertrain makes the Mannequin Y enjoyable to drive on the town.

You may level and shoot your method round tight streets with out taking your palms from the wheel, and there’s limitless torque to lean on within the visitors gentle Grand Prix. With a claimed 100km/h dash time of simply 5.0 seconds, it’ll embarrass scorching hatches off the road.

It’s a disgrace the journey is so agency. Perhaps agency is the incorrect phrase, possibly it’s busy, however even after a set of modifications to the suspension it’s consistently transferring up and down over pimply stretches of highway. It by no means fairly settles, which undermines the sense of refinement. 

Tesla has labored exhausting to enhance journey high quality and refinement within the new Mannequin 3 sedan; the identical needs to be a spotlight within the Mannequin Y SUV.

At larger speeds you additionally get numerous highway noise, and it’s particularly noticeable given there’s no noisy internal-combustion engine to drown it out.

It’s not deafening, however it’s one other knock on refinement that’ll pressure you to crank the stereo up a couple of notches.

Urgent the gear selector on the right-hand web site of the steering wheel twice prompts adaptive cruise management and lane centring, permitting the Mannequin Y to take care of a niche to the automobile in entrance and comply with the white strains on the highway.

As we’ve stated earlier than, the Autopilot identify is deceptive. For one, you want your palms on the wheel always… and there’s nothing within the Mannequin Y different automobiles received’t do in 2024.

The adaptive cruise management system is clean and good, though it nonetheless is liable to braking for automobiles in adjoining lanes, and the lane-centring system is akin to what’s on supply within the newest Kia and Hyundai vary.

Ticking the $5500 field for Enhanced Autopilot provides auto lane modifications and the power for the automobile to exit the freeway with the system energetic – the previous is feasible in Mercedes-Benz automobiles amongst others, the latter is a Tesla particular.

What do you get?

Mannequin Y RWD and Lengthy Vary highlights:

• 19-inch alloy wheels
• Adaptive LED headlights
• Black vegan inside
• 5 seats
• 15-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Aspect and rear-view cameras
• All-around parking sensors
• Satellite tv for pc navigation incl. cost community mapping, dwell pricing
• Twin wi-fi cellphone chargers
• 4 x USB-C ports (2 x entrance, 2 x rear)
• 128GB transportable storage for Sentry digital camera system
• 13-speaker sound system
• 12-way energy adjustable entrance seats 
• Heated entrance seats
• Heated rear seats (all three)
• Heated steering wheel
• Tinted glass roof 
• HEPA air filtration
• Twin-zone local weather management
• Energy folding, auto-dimming, heated facet mirrors
• Customized driver profiles
• Key card entry
• Smartphone app connectivity
• Digital fold-flat rear seat releases

Mannequin Y Efficiency provides:

• 21-inch Uberturbine wheels
• Efficiency brakes
• Lowered suspension
• Aluminium pedals
• 250km/h Prime pace (up from 217km/h)
• Carbon-fibre spoiler

Enhanced Autopilot ($5100) provides:

• Navigate on Autopilot
• Auto Lane Change
• Autopark
• Summon
• Sensible Summon

Full Self-Driving Functionality ($10,100) provides:

• Visitors Gentle and Cease Signal Management
• Upcoming: Auto steer on metropolis streets

Is the Tesla Mannequin Y secure?

Of greater than 30 automobiles examined over 2022 the Tesla Mannequin Y was the “prime performer” by ANCAP, scoring a five-star security ranking but additionally managing the best common rating (weighted throughout the 4 standards) of all automobiles examined.

It achieved a 97 per cent rating for grownup occupant safety, 89 per cent for baby occupant safety, 82 per cent for susceptible highway customers, and 98 per cent for security help. Unsurprisingly, it’s loaded with commonplace security know-how.

Normal options embrace:

• 7 airbags incl. front-centre airbag
• Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB)
  • Ahead, Reverse
  • Automobile, Pedestrian, Bicycle owner detection
  • Junction help
  • Backover prevention
• Blind-spot help
• Lane maintain help
• Reversing, facet view cameras
• Entrance, rear parking sensors
• Adaptive cruise management with cease/go
• Tyre stress monitoring
• Automated high-beam
• Clever pace limiter

How a lot does the Tesla Mannequin Y price to run?

That is the place Tesla lags behind nearly all its rivals.

Tesla doesn’t publish service intervals.

It recommends a brake fluid examine each 24 months, cabin air filters each two years, HEPA filter substitute at three years, and an air-conditioning service each 4 years, along with commonplace wheel balancing and tyre rotation.

CarExpert’s Tackle the Tesla Mannequin Y

The Mannequin Y is a benchmark for a cause.

It goes about issues in unconventional methods, however behind the ultra-minimalist inside and infuriatingly imprecise powertrain spec sheet is a wonderful electrical SUV.

Spacious, comfy, and enjoyable to drive in its personal method, it’s exhausting to fault when you think about the value. Then once more, the value can be one cause we’d be reticent to signal on the dotted line for a Mannequin Y.

Tesla’s value cuts have made this a considerably extra inexpensive possibility for almost all of Australians, however they’ve additionally – liable to being impolite – utterly rooted resale values, given a model new RWD is now barely costlier than gently used base fashions from three years in the past.

Will costs go decrease? Who is aware of, given the secrecy with which Tesla operates. However it’s the one black cloud hanging over what’s in any other case a straightforward automobile to suggest.

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