The primacy of the Tesla Model Y – still the best-selling electric car in both the UK and Europe – is slowly fading. Back in 2023, after production at Tesla’s European ‘Gigafactory’ in Berlin fully ramped up, this was Europe’s fastest-selling new car of any kind. In 2024, however, it dropped out of the continent’s big three and now seems less and less likely to return.
Not that Tesla is taking this lying down. Late last year, the American manufacturer announced this new bottom-rung Standard version of the Model Y. At list price, it costs £3000 less than the equivalent model (the Rear-Wheel Drive) did back in 2022 and about £7000 less than the next variant above it.
But the headline price is only half of the story. By optimising both equipment specification and performance, Tesla has produced lower cost of insurance and weaker depreciation for the Standard, the latter driving value through allimportant personal finance. The manufacturer-backed PCP finance deals start at just £300 per month – the kind of outlay EV owners will be more accustomed to paying for considerably smaller and shorterrange cars from classes below.
They could actually be cheaper still once you factor in the £3750 deposit booster offer that Tesla is currently offering to buyers trading in either combustion-engined cars or competitor EVs.
So how much less Tesla are you getting by choosing the Standard? Honestly, I’d say not much. There’s a lithium-iron-phosphate battery about whose capacity Tesla remains coy, quite rightly pointing out that too much emphasis is put on this by its rivals and not enough on actual efficiency. When pressed, the firm will confirm that the battery has “around 65kWh” of usable capacity (down from about 75kWh in the Long Range car), which on our chilly test day delivered a perfectly creditable real-world range of between 250 and 280 miles.
You get rear-axle-borne, singlemotor drive from a unit actually tuned to produce slightly slower acceleration and a lower top speed than the old RWD base model had (its UK insurance classification has subsequently been reduced from group 37 to 34). In neither case would you be likely to notice the difference, however – to which we will come shortly.
Cabin is darker than usual because the panoramic roof is covered with fabric
You probably will notice the altered headlights and tail-lights of the Standard (and you might not even mourn the omission of the front and rear light bars that other Model Ys get), while the simplified-looking front and rear bumpers help to reduce aerodynamic drag.
Inside the cabin, there’s no secondary touchscreen or seat heaters for back-seat passengers. Synthetic ‘vegan’ leather has been substituted for a cloth-and-faux leather upholstery combination. There’s a slightly simpler, seven-speaker stereo fitted and part of the car’s full-length glass roof has been covered up with a trim piece to make it look like a regular sunroof. That apart, the Model Y is mostly its sparsely appointed yet spacious, practical, comfortable self.
To drive, it remains a car whose lack of physical controls and conventional instrumentation does seem to gaslight you a bit about what actually constitutes ease of operation. Well rehearsed as it might sound, given that Tesla is now more of a generalist brand than one for technophiles, I think the argument bears repeating.
You do get a physical indicator stalk here, as well as actual buttons for headlight flash and wash-wipe. Unlike in other Model Ys, you also get manual steering column adjustment (whoopee). And yet adjusting the seat position and door mirrors, or activating the demister or adjusting the climate control, is all done through the 15in touchscreen. Selecting drive or reverse is likewise via a fiddly touchscreen slider, rather than via a physical thing that you can easily locate and grab at a glance.
“So how much less Tesla are you getting here? Honestly, I’d say not much”
Main difference up front is the Standard’s cutthrough centre console
Sometimes the Model Y seems to be able to use its parking sensors to recognise automatically when, departing a parking bay or making a three-point turn, you might want drive or reverse – and will select it for you. When it works, it’s quite clever – but, annoyingly, it doesn’t always. And so what you’re left with is a car that, at a fundamental level, just isn’t as simple to control as it ought to be and which has something of a variously obliging mind of its own.
Although Tesla has given the Standard conventional passive dampers (pricier derivatives use cleverer shocks) and 19in wheels, it rides acceptably well – more gently and quietly, certainly, than earlier Model Ys did – and handles quite smartly for a fairly big family car.
It has a performance level that feels assertive enough whether you’re around town or out of it, so it’s agreeable enough to drive – except for when the car’s ADAS functions decline to come to heel.
The assisted cruise control has an especially irritating habit of dropping out every time you change lanes on the motorway (which might explain why we see so many Tesla middle-lane hoggers) and its various other systems are harder to find and control through the touchscreen than they would be if there were, you know, buttons for them.
Much of this might well become less irritating as you learn the car’s particular quirks, however.
The most significant development here is how much better value the Model Y represents now than before. Thanks to the Standard version, it’s now rather a lot of EV for surprisingly little outlay. More surprising still, in fact, when you actually work out how much more a month you might be expected to pay for some of its opponents.
TESTER’S NOTE
The Model Y isn’t entirely devoid of buttons. The one on the left steering wheel spoke can be assigned an extra ‘long press’ function to adjust anything from heater temperature or fan speed to folding the door mirrors. Pity you can’t assign ADAS functions to it. MS
TECH SPEC
TESLA MODEL Y STANDARD
Meets or surpasses expectations about space, range, performance and equipment for an appealing price, even if its technology and drivability quirks still annoy
Price £41,990
Engine Permanent magnet synchronous motor
Power 295bhp (est)
Torque 317lb ft (est)
Gearbox 1-spd reduction gear, RWD
Kerb weight 1906kg
0-62mph 6.9sec
Top speed 110mph
Battery 69.5/65.0kWh (total/est usable)
Range, economy 314 miles, 4.5mpkWh
CO2, tax band 0g/km, 3%
Rivals BYD Sealion 7 Comfort, Hyundai Ioniq 5 Long Range, Skoda Enyaq 85 ■