The Car Connection Expert Review
Likes
- Interior and cargo space
- Intuitive, tablet-like touchscreen
- Mighty acceleration
- Road-trip charging experience
Dislikes
- Bulbous profile
- Inconsistent build quality
- No Apple CarPlay or Android Auto
- Generic feel of cabin trims
Buying tip
features & specs
While some of its details are underwhelming, the 2024 Tesla Model Y is a front-runner on pragmatism, with a roomy interior, long driving range, and strong performance.
What kind of car is the 2024 Tesla Model Y? What does it compare to?
The Tesla Model Y is an electric crossover SUV that can accommodate up to seven people and, depending on the configuration, offers well over 300 miles of range. Rivals include the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, and Volkswagen ID.4, although the versatility of a small third row makes it a standout.
Is the 2024 Tesla Model Y a good car?
The Model Y is competent in all respects that matter to families and pragmatic types, with top-notch safety scores, impressive acceleration, decent handling, and a responsive, intuitive interface. Demerits tend to be focused around underwhelming styling, an austere interior, a lackluster list of options, and build quality that over the years has been all over the place. Skip “Full Self Driving” and the debate around it, and the Model Y earns a TCC Rating of 7.5 out of 10. (Read more about how we rate cars.)
What's new for the 2024 Tesla Model Y?
The Model Y remains offered in Long Range and Performance versions, but for 2024 a base single-motor model joins the lineup. Not called Standard Range this time around, the base Model Y offers a range of 260 miles, with rear-wheel drive and a 0-60 mph time of 6.6 seconds.
Tesla often introduces new features—down to the battery level, even—in the middle of calendar and model years, whenever they’re ready, and so battery details, rated range, and features may all be subject to change at the time you buy or order.
The past year has brought heated wipers to the Model Y lineup, as well as a different suspension tune—in addition to the introduction of that base model.
Versus the Model 3 sedan on which it’s based, the Model Y has a design that’s a little less balanced in its proportions, due to the tall, bubbly greenhouse, but that provides superior cargo and passenger volume. The Model Y’s elegantly simple dash and front-seat space are the highlights of the interior, which is ultra-minimalist and skips many conventional switches and buttons in favor of a center-mounted 15.0-inch touchscreen—so you’d better be a fan of seeing the screen as a hub for pretty much everything, tablet-style.
Beyond the base Model Y, the rest of the lineup has dual-motor all-wheel drive and versus previous years Tesla has revised the range numbers downward for 2024 without providing any explanation. The Long Range Model Y offers a range of up to 310 miles, while the Performance version is quicker but won’t go quite as far on a charge—up to 285 miles, albeit with an acceleration time of 3.5 seconds to 60, versus 4.8 seconds for the Long Range.
Tesla still banks a lot of its technology talk behind the prowess of its driver-assistance tech. While all the active-safety basics are included, the $6,000 Enhanced Autopilot package adds adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitors, and active lane control. The Full Self-Driving suite, at $15,000, still promises hands-free city driving in the future, although driver attention will still be required.
How much does the 2024 Model Y cost?
Tesla prices have been a roller coaster, and after various price hikes in 2021 and 2022, prices of new Tesla models plunged in 2023. That left the price of a base 2024 Model Y at the time of writing at just $44,380. Model Y Long Range versions start at $49,380, and Performance versions start at a starting price of $53,880. The added cost of the seven-passenger layout has also dropped this year, to $3,000, but it’s offered only on the Long Range.
Standard equipment on the Model Y includes 12-way power front seats, heated front and rear seats, a heated steering wheel, a wireless charging pad good for two phones, four USB ports, and a glass roof, as well as synthetic leather upholstery as part of what Tesla describes as an “all vegan interior.”
Where is the Model Y made?
The Model Y is made in Fremont, Calif., and Austin, Texas.
2024 Tesla Model Y Styling
The Model Y starts with a Model 3 and pulls the roofline upward—for good function but imperfect visual proportions.
Is the 2024 Tesla Model Y a good-looking car?
The Model Y looks, from most angles, like Tesla took the Model 3 sedan’s profile and stretched it upward. That’s likely not so far from the truth; the roomy, super-minimalist cabin is mostly borrowed from the Model 3, and it earns a point for consistency and the minimalist statement it makes inside—if that’s for you—arriving at a 6 on our scale.
Up close, the Model Y has a more rounded roofline and slightly higher beltline than the sedan. Look at it only from the front or rear and the Model Y has a great stance. At just 6.6 inches of ground clearance, it’s low to the ground and skips all the faux-rugged pretense and body cladding of so many other crossovers.
Inside, the Model Y is a model of design simplicity. Switchgear and buttons are kept to a minimum, and everything runs through the 15.0-inch landscape-oriented touchscreen atop the dash, in easy reach of both passengers. Materials inside don’t look luxurious, but there’s a certain design homogeneity that makes it all click.
2024 Tesla Model Y Performance
The Tesla Model Y is leaner than most crossovers its size, and that gives it a driving advantage, with quick, satisfying performance.
The Model Y leaps off the line with quiet urgency that will be startlingly refreshing to those switching from gasoline crossovers. And it handles surprisingly well for its practical mission. As such, it earns a 7 on our scale.
Is the Tesla Model Y AWD?
Most of the Model Y lineup, including Long Range and Performance versions, come only with dual-motor all-wheel drive. But this year the addition of a base Model Y with single-motor rear-wheel drive means you have the choice.
How fast is the Model Y?
In its most popular Long Range configuration, the Model Y can blast to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds. Performance versions take just 3.5 seconds to make that dash—quick enough to out-accelerate other electric crossovers and many sports cars.
Not all of the Model Y lineup is quite so quick, though. The base Model Y added this year promises a 0-60 mph time of 6.6 seconds from its single-motor drive system. Tesla hasn’t yet revealed power figures for this model, or updated them for the other versions.
Tesla provides regenerative braking when you lift the accelerator, but it’s not blended in as you press the brake pedal, so the coordination is slightly different than with other EVs. That said, the most aggressive of several regenerative braking settings allows one-pedal driving—meaning you can make gentler stops and starts without using the brake pedal much, if at all. Probably best to go with “Chill” mode, though, if you have passengers.
Weight can make many electric crossovers feel anything but frisky in how they handle, but the Model Y’s relatively light curb weight, communicative steering, and relatively firm suspension make it one of the best-handling in its class. The low-mounted battery pack gives the Model Y an almost performance-coupe level of cornering prowess.
Just keep in mind that you’ll get more bumps and harshness transmitted into the cabin—especially so in the Performance version.
The Model Y doesn’t offer the kind of ground clearance needed for trail driving, although for traction on loose surfaces there’s an Off-Road Assist feature. Add the $1,000 tow hitch, and its towing capacity tops out at 3,500 pounds.
2024 Tesla Model Y Comfort & Quality
Efficiency in interior space and cargo versatility are both Model Y strengths. And there’s even an optional third row.
By parking footprint, the Tesla Model Y is one of the smallest vehicles in the U.S. market to offer three rows of seating. While we have doubts about that space particularly, there’s good space for five adults, as well as impressive cargo space and versatility, including a frunk for smaller items. While those are two solid plus points on our scale, because we haven’t seen much evidence that Tesla build quality issues have been cured, we reel that back to a 6.
From a utilitarian standpoint, the Model Y cabin is a pleasant place, with rather firm, supportive seats that do the job but are missing the plushness some may prefer. The bright glass roof overhead, on all versions, adds an airiness to the cabin that doesn’t cut into headroom.
The Model Y is easy to get into the Model Y, thanks to larger door cuts front and rear. The Model Y’s greenhouse is also 5.9 inches taller than the Model 3’s, and the raised roof makes for a more pleasant backseat experience.
Five-seat versions of the Model Y offer 30.2 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats, expanding to 72.1 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down. For the seven-seat layout, there is 12.8 cubic feet behind the third row, 26.6 cubic feet behind the second, and 67.9 cubic feet with both rows folded. We still haven’t been inside a seven-seat Model Y, but based on feedback from owners it’s a tight fit for taller adults or for child seats—leaving a thin segment of people who might find it doable.
Tesla boasts that the interior is “all vegan.” Tesla says the synthetic leather is more durable, stain-resistant, and “significantly more sustainable” versus conventional materials.
2024 Tesla Model Y Safety
Look beyond “Full Self Driving” controversies and the Model Y offers great occupant protection.
How safe is the Model Y?
The 2024 Tesla Model Y has top crash-test ratings, and that includes a set of five-star results from the NHTSA as well as a spot on the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ list for 2023—yet to be renewed for 2024 at the time of writing.
Factoring in the Model Y’s excellent set of standard safety features, including all the essentials, that’s a 9 out of 10 here.
That set of features included in all Model Y brings automatic emergency braking, active lane control, and blind-spot monitors. Although the low hoodline can leave you guessing a bit about the front edge of the car in parkring, outward visibility is great.
Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot package costs $6,000 and includes automatic lane changes and a Smart Summon feature that will allow the vehicle to find you or be sent to a specific space (within private parking lots).
Full Self Driving, for $15,000, provides a feature set that’s essentially a work in progress. It will react to traffic lights and stop signs, and Tesla claims future automatic steering on city streets—in a feature set, bearing a “beta” label plotting owners as real-world software developers, that’s already been reeled in by federal regulators, somewhat.
2024 Tesla Model Y Features
The “smartphone on wheels” cliches actually ring true here—in a good way—while a limited array of Model Y builds won’t leave shoppers with many choices.
The “smartphone on wheels” cliches actually ring true here—in a good way—while a limited array of Model Y builds won’t leave shoppers with many choices.
The standard-feature set for the Model Y is impressive, and its responsive, intuitive, sharp-looking infotainment system is among the best in the business. That brings the Model Y up to a 7 in this category.
If your priority is sheer simplicity of interface, the Tesla Model Y is the best it gets. Beautiful, within easy reach, and with a flat, intuitive menu structure, it’s a great hub for just about everything the Model Y has to offer—which is a whole lot via the screen. Gauge cluster, warning lights, and some of the switchgear for repositioning the mirrors and steering wheel, or even repositioning the climate vents, has all been relocated to the screen and, at times employing steering-wheel toggles. But the screen, without fail, does the job, with a clear font and adjustments that all feel very iPad-like.
Standard features also include 12-way power front seats, heated front and rear seats, a heated steering wheel, four USB ports, and the glass roof. Some vehicles might also include heated wipers.
Add the seven-passenger interior option (for $3,000), and you get USB-C charging ports back there, a sliding second row with adjustable seatbacks, and a setup that allows both the second and third rows to fold flat (with releases in the trunk area) for cargo. You won’t miss out on much cargo space versus the five-passenger version.
At face value, Tesla’s 4-year/50,000-mile basic warranty is competitive, plus it has 8-year/100,000-mile (or 150,000 mile) coverage for the battery and drive units. Just keep in mind that owners report widely varying levels of responsiveness to different issues.
Which Tesla Model Y should I buy?
The Long Range version is probably the sweet spot for most Model Y buyers. Its acceleration is plenty quick, and as Tesla owners are advised to charge to 80% the majority of the time, when not on highway trips, and cold weather can impact range further, it’s the best realistic pick for family use and year-round usability. Do get the Enhanced Autopilot if you tend to pile on the highway miles.
How much is a fully loaded Model Y?
If you start with the Model Y Performance, adding premium paint, a tow hitch, the black-and-white interior, Full Self Driving, and a mobile charging connector (charging equipment not included), it adds up to $68,880.
2024 Tesla Model Y Fuel Economy
Despite somewhat lower range ratings for 2024, the Tesla Model Y goes farther with less energy than other electric crossovers.
Despite somewhat lower range ratings for 2024, the Tesla Model Y goes farther with less energy than other electric crossovers.
While the Tesla Model Y’s superiority is all up for debate by personal preference in so many other respects, it’s the most efficient EV in its class based on its official numerical ratings. Apples to apples, it makes more with less—allowing owners to spend less money and charging time to cover more miles.
The 2024 Model Y earns an estimated range of 310 miles for the Long Range and 285 miles for the Performance. Its efficiency, of well over 3.0 miles per kwh for the entire model line, earns it a full 10 points in this category.
Tesla certified a lower-cost Standard Range version of the 2023 Model Y, at 279 EPA miles of range, but instead what arrived was a 260-mile-rated base single-motor Model Y.
Both of the longer-range variants feature a lithium-ion pack with about 80 kwh of usable capacity, while base Model Y versions offer approximately 60 kwh, based on reports from owners.
On a 240-volt Level 2 home (or destination) charger, the Model Y gains back about 45 miles of range per hour of charging.
Tesla’s consistency in road-trip fast-charging remains a strength—especially via its own Supercharger network. In the Model Y, it claims up to 162 miles of range back in 15 minutes.
