Tesla remains the number one automotive company that produces electric cars, and the Model Y remains its most popular vehicle. Fortunately, anyone looking for an electric car can now purchase the brand new 2023 Tesla Model Y. This new version has solved one of the issues that have plagued past Tesla owners for years—build quality. Gone are the problems with defective paint, quick battery degradation, and irksome panel gaps. So what is so unique about this new model? One would be the parking assist, which alerts you of surrounding objects if you’re going 5 miles per hour. Aside from this, the new Tesla Model Y offers drivers many other exciting features.
The Tesla Model Y is a crossover SUV that can comfortably seat five to seven average-sized adults. The Tesla Long Range Model starts at $65,990 $53,490.
Purchasing this model allows you to upgrade to a third row, which would cost you an additional $3,000. However, according to Tesla, the range drops by 4 miles, from the max of 330 miles to 326 miles. A 15-minute charge also gives you 162 miles. Meanwhile, the Performance model is about $4,000 more expensive.
The front seats are standard, but the passenger seat lacks lumbar support. Sitting inside, you’ll immediately notice how the car feels so spacious. The back contains a huge flat trunk covering a big and smaller storage compartment. On the sides of the trunk, you get two cubby holes sheltered by a cargo cover to hide items. You can also remove the cover and fold the seats to create more space. Below the front seats are small drawers for storing smaller items. The one thing that most gas-powered cars cannot have is a front trunk. However, unlike most electric cars, the one in the Tesla Model Y is not yet powered. On top of that, closing it requires you to be very gentle.
The new Tesla Model Y’s interior is similar to the Tesla Model 3. You get a 15-inch screen to activate most features. On the steering wheel are buttons that turn on the wipers, initiate voice commands, control autopilot, and other basics, which is great because you want to avoid navigating through your screen while driving. Tesla owners don’t complain much about the UI because software updates regularly improve the overall experience. It can be argued that the Tesla app is the best in the EV market. One of the updates makes the blind spot camera appear on the monitor, which allows you to put it anywhere on the screen. The main screen shows you the things that surround your car. It can show trash cans, vehicles in front, and cars driving past you. You shouldn’t rely too much on this awareness-type feature, but it has proven to be handy. One negative thing about this car is the rear-view mirror’s visibility because the interior has glass installed on almost every corner.
To add to the great storage and technology, the Tesla Model Y also gives you a great driving experience. It can give you the power you want without affecting its overall acceleration. Because the car has one-pedal driving, you can quickly overtake without exerting any effort or putting yourself in the wrong position, and you can also easily slow down. Due to the newly added suspension kit, the driving performance of the new Tesla Model Y is much better than the 2020 version, which many said lacked quality. Unlike the previous version, the new Tesla Model Y’s improved suspension kit ensures that driving through rough roads or a bump won’t be too annoying. You’ll still feel it, but you won’t worry about it.
Recently, Tesla announced that all its cars are getting significant software updates, including full self-driving or the FSD update v11. Tesla owners in North America who bought the FSD can now get the upgrade, a combination of the FSD and autopilot highway stacks. The release note said the upgrade would “make way for adding more intelligent behaviors, smoother control, and better decision-making.”
You’ll also notice that the car is awfully quiet during a drive except for the low rumbling noise from the back. The noise becomes more pronounced as you drive faster, but that is to be expected since the car is a hatchback.
The autopilot features are responsive, too. The lane-keeping system keeps you in your lane if the car feels like you’re drifting too far. The vehicle can go up to 85 miles per hour while doing this. While on automatic steering, high-beam lights and window wipers are automatically activated when it rains. You can easily disable these by exiting autopilot and using the screen. Non-FSD models cannot change lanes on autopilot, so you must come out of it to do so. The Tesla system is better than its competitors’ systems because its autopilot can drive on any mapped highway with clear landmarks.
Regarding touch screens, the one in the Tesla Model Y is considered the best among electric cars. It makes Google Maps very easy to use. If you want to go somewhere, type in the location, and you’re good to go. Like Google Maps on your phone, it tells you how long a drive is to a specific destination and multiple routes to get there. Since you’re in a Tesla, the app also shows the location of all superchargers you can access. The chargers in red indicate that your car can reach them without charging, while the others not in red mean you’ll need to charge at least once to get to them. The screen allows you to create multiple driver profiles, so you won’t have to adjust the settings whenever someone else uses your car. If you choose specific settings, the system will automatically save them to your driving profile, which is very convenient. The climate controls are accessed through the screen. You can activate the heated steering wheel, heated seats, windshield defroster, windshield wipers, and the HEPA filter, which maintains the temperature inside the car. Cooled seats, on the other hand, are not available.
Tesla Model Y owners also love its sound system. The Model Y is equipped with a 13-speaker audio system powered by a 160-watt amplifier and subwoofer. The total power consumption of the system is around 600 watts. Between the dashboard and the windshield in the Model Y are three speakers. Each front door has an 8-inch subwoofer, tweeters in the door triangles, and speakers in the A-pillars.
For the media menu, you have Spotify, Bluetooth, TIDAL, and Karaoke, among others. In a Tesla, more people prefer using TIDAL since it allows you to download albums that you can listen to offline. This is useful if you’re going somewhere with a weak signal. The dock on the screen is customizable, making it easier for you to access apps without having to open the menu. Simply drag and drop apps from the small window that shows various options into the dock. It also appears that Tesla wants its users to be entertained while charging or waiting. You can access the Theater app, which includes Netflix, TikTok, Hulu, Twitch, and other streaming platforms.
The Arcade category displays several games anyone can play. The Energy app is Tesla’s most recent addition. It enumerates the consumption items and how much of them your car uses. After a trip, it’ll compare your actual consumption to what it predicted. The vehicle also saves a clip every time you honk your horn, which you can view later.
Despite removing ultrasonic sensors that helped with parking, the new Tesla Model Y is still better. It is equipped with the new Tesla Vision, giving your car a new 5-megapixel camera, an upgrade from the previous 1-megapixel camera, and no more panel gap issues. The autopilot cameras behind the rear-view mirror were also given upgrades, as shown by the bigger lenses.
In addition, the new Tesla Model Y allows you to open the driver’s car door by just long-pressing your key. This is especially helpful given that the Model Y and Model 3 both tend to have their door handles freeze during cold weather. As part of the FSD update, Tesla introduced Smart Summon. This instructs your parked Tesla Model Y to drive wherever you want.
So as you can see, the Tesla Model Y has various attractive features. It was the best-selling car in the third quarter of 2022 in California, even though the state failed to reach the ideal target of 2 million units sold in the same year. In addition, Tesla recently introduced a dynamic pricing model to lower supercharger station prices.