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00:00What's up guys, MKBHD here, and the car that I'm driving right now is called the Tesla
00:14Model Y Performance, and this car, I was going to do like a whole big review of it, but since
00:20I've already done an autofocus on the Model 3, I think we can keep this one pretty simple.
00:25So this car, it looks like a Model 3 from many angles, especially when you're outside
00:29from the front, you look at it just like a Model 3, same front end, same headlights,
00:34same idea.
00:35But as soon as you see it from the side, then you get like a little more of that profile,
00:39you start to see how much more headroom there is, how much more of that DNA from the Model
00:44X is coming in.
00:45So it fits right into the family, and I think it's good, as far as electric cars go, that
00:50it does look pretty familiar.
00:51And then you start to see some of the bigger differences, so on the Model 3, where there
00:55was chrome everywhere, every single Model Y has a matte black trim.
01:00Around the windows, and the mirrors, and the door handles, all matte black trim, which
01:04is sweet.
01:05I happen to think it looks pretty dope, and also, I don't know if you can tell, on that
01:09back window, every single Model Y I've seen on the road has tinted back windows, and this
01:14one came with tinted back windows, I think from the factory, they're tinting the back
01:19windows and rear window of every Model Y.
01:22I don't think the Model S, or Model X, or Model 3 do that, but I also think that looks
01:26pretty good.
01:27And then inside, it's got this huge amount of uninterrupted glass for the roof.
01:32Right from the front seats, all the way to behind the back seats, it's perfect for visibility,
01:37or just stargazing, or whatever you end up being into, but the point is, visibility from
01:43pretty much every angle except rear is pretty good.
01:47I think when you look straight back from this car, the tailgate comes up kinda high, and
01:51then that roof line goes down pretty low, so the rear is a little bit tight, but other
01:56than that, you can see everything.
01:57Oh, and also, speaking of the tailgate, this car also has a power liftgate, unlike Model
02:033.
02:04Alright, Doug DeMuro style, we have a quirk slash feature, the power liftgate trunk has
02:07a memory just like Model S and Model X, so typically, you open that power liftgate from
02:13either in the car, or outside, it opens all the way, this is the max height.
02:18This is great, but maybe you don't wanna reach up this high every time, or you have a low
02:21garage, so you can bring this down a little bit, maybe halfway, and then hold that button
02:26for three seconds.
02:27You hear a little chime.
02:30So now, every time you open the trunk from here on out, that'll be the memorized height,
02:34so if you ever go back into your garage, or that low space again, it won't ever open past
02:39the memorized height, so if I did it right, it should stop about halfway, there you go.
02:46So Model Y, because of this tailgate, has a lot more uninterrupted storage too, thanks
02:50to being a hatchback, so without even putting the seats down, thanks to no transmission
02:54and no gas tank, you already have a ton of space in here, and it's nicely separated too,
03:00and then putting the seats down gets you like, eight feet of uninterrupted space, to the
03:04point where I've seen people put a bed in the back of the car here like this, and camp
03:08in it.
03:09And the seat's power fold, by the way, so the switches are on the left side of the trunk,
03:13you flip them, and it folds right down.
03:15I think really though, there's two main things that you think as you're sitting in the
03:20driver's seat driving a Model Y.
03:22Number one is that you're just higher off the ground than a Model 3, of course, and
03:26then number two is everything else is just like a Model 3.
03:31So the being higher off the ground part, I think there's some upside and some downside
03:34to that.
03:35A lot of people like the utility of being higher off the ground, you obviously have
03:38more road clearance, you have more visibility, and you just generally feel safer when you
03:43feel like you can see more, I can see like right over the nose of this car pretty easily,
03:48so being higher off the ground is nice, literally it's the same seats as Model 3 but on risers,
03:54it's easier to get in and out of the car, all that is real, but the downside, if you
03:59care about like the sportiness or the feel of the drive, is yeah, you are further from
04:04the road, so you feel a little less connected to the road.
04:08I'm not like a, I'm not a car reviewer, I'm not about, I'm not gonna go top gear on you
04:12is what I'm trying to say, talking about driving dynamics and all that sort of thing, but pretty
04:16clearly when you're further from the road you feel a little bit less sporty, but that's
04:21not to take away from the performance of this car, this car feels nimble, agile, same steering
04:29wheel, same turning radius, all the sport settings on this car feels really nice.
04:39Half of my driving around roads like this is like swerving around potholes, roads are
04:44pretty rough in the northeast all the time, and the ride quality in the Performance Model
04:48Y, it's actually kind of harsh sometimes, I feel like with the coil suspension, which
04:53is the same as the Model 3, and then also with these big 21 inch wheels, it's not as
04:57forgiving.
04:58Now if you get the non-Performance version, you can get it with smaller wheels, it'll
05:00still have the coil suspension, but it'll feel a little more forgiving, but honestly
05:04anytime you're driving an electric car, with all the torque you get right away, it's always
05:09gonna feel really fast.
05:13So then, when I say it feels just like a Model 3, that's not really that surprising because
05:18this car shares like 75% of its parts with the Model 3, inside and out, it almost is
05:24a Model 3.
05:25The interior is of course almost exactly the same, and it's this like staggeringly minimal
05:29look, it's a super clean look to it of course, and there's also literally no buttons anywhere
05:36in the car except the door handles, the steering wheel, and the hazard button, which I think
05:41is one of the buttons legally required to be in the car.
05:44So everything else is on the single center screen, like everything else.
05:50So that's the speedometer, the navigation, everything, and you know I've, now that I've
05:55had this car for, it's almost been two weeks actually, I've gotten used to a lot of it,
06:01but some of it I still kinda wish actually was just a regular button.
06:06Like I don't know, there's just so many little things that were just used to being buttons,
06:10like the windshield wipers are on the touch screen, anytime you want to change their speed,
06:15that's where you'll find the controls, the glove box, there's no button for that, even
06:19next to the glove box itself, you have to get to that through the center screen, and
06:22even, even the air conditioner vents, like if you just want to reach up and adjust the
06:27air to make it point at your face or something, you can't even do that, you have to do that
06:32on the screen.
06:33Now it is a super cool, futuristic looking UI where you have all this directing the air
06:38wherever you want, but still sometimes I just wanna, I just wanna put the air on my face,
06:45like with one little, so I don't know, there's a lot of stuff happening on the screen, it's
06:49all super cool, but at the same time I kinda wish I had a little bit more manual control.
06:54The key.
06:56This is the key, it's a card key, you can also connect your app, but this is the key,
07:00and when you get in the Model Y it tells you to put your foot on the brake and put the
07:03key right here, next to the armrest, which is this very glossy, slippery surface, there's
07:09no magnets or anything, and so as soon as you drive away, or if you accelerate kinda
07:15hard, which you might in an electric car, or brake kinda hard, or do anything that's
07:19not a straight line, it just slides off and falls into the seat or on the floor, and that's
07:25not very elegant, so I understand most people will just use the app on your phone because
07:30you got a car that can do that, you'll use the app, but I kinda wish there was a dedicated
07:35place that could just hold the key and not have it slide all over the place, it would
07:39feel a little more, not professional, what's the word, refined.
07:45I talk about a lot of this stuff in the Model 3 autofocus episode, about how this is a high
07:48tech car, with all the autopilot, and computer vision, and software updates, and supercharging
07:55and all that stuff, and also the second video about how Teslas improve over time, so I'll
08:00link both of those videos, below the like button if you want to check them out, but
08:03I think the main focus for Tesla right now is manufacturing and quality control, those
08:11are the two main concerns starting a long time ago, but especially with Model Y.
08:16So at the time of me recording this, this fully loaded spec Model Y I'm driving with
08:21autopilot costs about $70,000, and that's still an expensive car, so they haven't started
08:28making all the cheaper versions yet, and so for that price, even if you're not the most
08:33picky person about that type of stuff, which I'm not actually, you still want things to
08:38be built well, and even in this Model Y that Tesla gave me, I found it has some pretty
08:44big panel gaps, the one back left over the trunk is pretty serious, potentially letting
08:49like water into the car, and I think causing more wind noise, the sun visor on the passenger
08:54side is pretty loose, like it could just fall off if you pull too hard, the hazard button
08:59up top is a little bit indented and just not quite aligned right, and the front trunk lip
09:04isn't quite even all the way around, you kind of notice it after you look at it for too
09:07long.
09:08And this is the one Tesla gave me, so you know people who are obviously not getting
09:13a review unit that can be looked over 5 or 6 times before it's shipped off to be in front
09:17of a high res camera, you know people are gonna also have some of the same issues, potentially
09:22more issues, as we're still in this early stage of manufacturing.
09:26Now like I said, I'm personally not actually very picky about things like panel gaps, like
09:31I like high quality materials, but generally I'm someone who's more focused on, when I'm
09:37driving, the actual driving experience, so I'm paying attention to the handling, the
09:41way the car feels when you're steering, the 0-60, and for all of those fundamentals, and
09:48all the extra high tech stuff like autopilot, this car crushes it, it just does.
09:55Maybe it's kind of like a smartphone review where I can only tell you so much about the
10:01phone that you're definitely gonna get, like I can tell you about the hardware and the
10:05performance and typically how it works, but a lot of the little stuff, like that can be
10:12tweaked and fixed with software updates, you can expect to be probably different from the
10:16phone that I'm reviewing before it comes out.
10:19And that's kind of the same thing here with a Tesla, they change so much stuff over time
10:25that all the fundamentals, the driving, the acceleration, the autopilot, the features,
10:30the minimal interior, all that is still gonna be the same about anyone who orders a Model
10:35Y, but a lot of the smaller stuff, like the fit and finish, and a lot of the little things
10:40like the seats and the little software features may very well change by the time someone else
10:46gets their Model Y.
10:47But as far as that stuff that I pay attention to that matters, I'm a big fan of this car.