EYES ON THE PRIZE It ain’t pretty, but Tesla’s Model Y can race to a top speed of 135 mph and cover up to 316 miles between charges.
Photo: Tesla
I WAS DEBATING whether to proclaim the new Tesla Model Y the best car in the world. Given that the all-electric medium-size crossover ($57,190 for the Long Range Dual Motor AWD, as tested) is the most technically advanced electric automobile made; and that electric cars are functionally superior to those powered by internal combustion; there is a certain Vulcan logic to it.
Reasonable earthlings may disagree. This high-waisted version of the Model 3 sedan—with roughly 70% of the same parts, says the company—isn’t exactly lovely, a quality every tiara-wearing total package ought to have, don’t you think? The Y is 7.1 inches taller (+1.1 inch ground clearance) than the 3, a couple inches longer and nearly 3 inches wider. Under the liftback (very like a Model X) is about 53 cubic feet of storage, with another 15 or so in the front trunk. If the 3 is a cute short stack of pancakes, the Y is the pile they serve you at Denny’s.
“ From behind the wheel of the Model Y, every competitor in the category feels like a sluggish, sloppy antique. ”
Nor would I gainsay car-buyers if they found the Y’s interior minimalism severe. Shared with the 3, the Y’s dash is a spare, inclined console of soft-touch “vegan leather” and wood trim, concealing in its layers the blade-like climate outlets. There are flick-able switches on the doors, for windows and opening actuators, and two roller-ball selectors on the steering wheel. All other controls-—including the power tilt/rake of the steering wheel, side mirrors, even climate outlet airflow—are accessed in the 15-inch center touch screen floating in the center of the dash. Not everyone is down with that.
In my showing the car to neighbors, it seemed to take about 30 seconds for people to make whatever gestalt switch required for their impressions to change from “boring” to “restful.” A key part of that seems to be the dawning delight of finding oneself under the Y’s one-piece panoramic glass roof, a terrarium for suburbia’s bearded dragons.
I look forward to a day when car critics can again suck their thumbs and opine about emotionally chilly styling and split hairs about human factors. Meanwhile, we have this car, this one program, beating the competition on core technology like a drum. From behind the wheel, everything else in this category—Mercedes-Benz GLC 300, Range Rover Evoque, Jaguar F-Pace, Porsche Macan—feels like a sluggish, sloppy antique, a squawking modem trying to connect to the cloud.
The Model Y’s satisfactions as a driving machine—its fierce, velvety acceleration, deep-pile powertrain isolation, the absence of friction and stiction, under load and under braking—are partly born of discontent with the current generation of stammering gassers (see above), all with herky-jerky, multimodal drive programs. From now until about 2030, and irrespective of what the U.S. federal government decrees, global car makers will be shrinking, hybridizing and digitizing their gas-powered engines until they vanish altogether. The endgame of petroleum will be a decade of dizzy, overtaxed turbo four-cylinders, cutting off and on at stop lights, shuddering like washing machines.
The Y, by contrast, is quiet as a Trappist. Even its lips are pursed. In the basement is roughly 75 kWh worth of lithium-ion cells, powering an induction motor in front and a larger, permanent magnet motor in the rear. When fully entrained, the gadget throws 384 hp and 376 lb-ft against its 4,416-pound mass. Zero to 60 mph goes by in a crisp 4.8 seconds (3.5 seconds for the 456-hp Performance version). At highway speed, our LR/AWD Y was capable of gasp-inducing bouts of acceleration, surging into triple digits with quite ridiculous nonchalance.
Even setting aside the Y’s brawny batteries and humma-hunka motors, this car is a little dreadnought of innovation, advancing in fields as diverse as body engineering and HVAC systems. Because heating and air-conditioning can be a huge drain on batteries, Tesla developed a super-efficient heat pump for climate control; as well as a remarkably compact network of coolant loops coming together at the “Octovalve,” serving the thermal needs of disparate systems. The HVAC’s efficiency is crucial to the Y’s 316 miles of range.
The touch screen interface, and the graphical software behind it—smart, playful, situationally aware, connected to the hilt—sets a standard that other infotainment and driver-assistance systems undershoot by a mile. The voice-command system works well out of the box, and its error rate declines with use.
Genius abounds: A setting in the Toybox menu allows drivers to let rip a series of hilarious fart sounds at the touch of a button. You can also make the tootskies your turn-indicator tone, which my 12-year-old twins assure me never gets old. Using the interface you can move the farts’ acoustical center of pressure around, making it louder in one seat or another. What a time to be alive.
Want to dive deeper? Seek out reverse-engineering specialist Sandy Munro, of Munro & Associates Inc. in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Mr. Munro, who typically sells his research to car makers, has made a remarkable series of YouTube videos tearing down the Y to the last nut, bolt, and screw. Often appearing on-camera in a face mask, Mr. Munro has become an EV folk hero during the pandemic, genially detailing the Y’s breakthroughs while reminding the “boys and girls” watching to “tip those cashiers.” Mr. Munro said he was slightly horrified by his sample car’s paint finish; he also noted that the panel gaps of this early build were inconsistent. Even with that, Mr. Munro told the website Teslarati, “I don’t think anyone right now has a way of challenging Tesla.”
Exasperated, some may argue that, however advanced the rest of the Y is, its battery pack is still too heavy, bulky, weak, and expensive to represent real disruption. CEO Elon Musk would agree. Tesla watchers are anticipating that the company will reveal the results of its research partnerships and in-house programs at its next investor conference, called Battery Day. Among the newsy nominals, a rumored “million-mile battery”—a storage technology capable of decades of use in cars, and thereafter in stationary smart-grid storage. Tesla has no comment.
Meanwhile, Tesla has reportedly been developing its own less costly, more energy-dense cells and packs, along with the mega-maufacturing needed to bring them to scale. Some analysts expect Mr. Musk to announce cell costs below $100 per kWh, a widely recognized inflection point at which it becomes cheaper to build an electric car than its gas-powered equivalent. BloombergNEF estimates that the industry average won’t reach that mark until 2024.
Will legacy car makers ever catch up? It’s debatable.
2020 Tesla Model Y Long Range Dual Motor AWD
Base Price: $52,990
Price, as Tested: $57,190 (w/ delivery)
Powertrain: Battery-electric, with floor-mounted, liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery pack (approx. 75 kWh); dual traction motors on front/rear axle; all-wheel drive
Power/Torque: 384 hp/376 lb-ft
Length/Width/Height/Wheelbase: 187.0/83.8 (including mirrors) /63.9/113.8 inches
Curb Weight: 4,416 pounds
Max Range: 316 miles
0-60 mph: 4.8 seconds
Top Speed: 135 mph
Write to Dan Neil at Dan.Neil@wsj.com
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