There’s been a serious disturbance in the force for Tesla sceptics. The Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV, formerly slightly-odd-looking things with impressive technology that were primarily of interest to automotive-agnostics, have become really good… cars.
Click here to read our Tesla Model Y RWD full review
The new Model 3 (“Highland” if you must) and Model Y (“Juniper”) look striking, have brushed up significantly on ride and handling and now carry serious appeal to people who like… cars.
The introduction of Full Self Driving (Supervised), which turned out to be a better and more complete driving assistant (it doesn’t need you most of the time, actually) than we expected, simply sweetens the deal.
We nominated the Model 3 as our best Passenger car in the DRIVEN Car Guide NZ Car of the Year 2025 awards, and it made it through to our top three overall. We’ve been equally impressed with the Model Y in its own way, and of course it still stands as our COTY Safest car.
The Model Y has brushed up significantly on ride and handling and now carries serious appeal for people who like… cars.
All context as we head into a review of the new Model Y Performance, which is very much a faster Y but also a lot more than simply… a faster Y.
Performance models are now Tesla tradition. Compared to a standard dual-motor Model Y, the Performance rockets to 100km/h 1.3 seconds faster (an unnecessarily rapid 3.5sec), loses just 20km range (580km), looks quite a bit cooler and costs another $23,000. Which is a big premium, but $100,900 is also good value for an EV with this kind of capability.
Tesla has delved into the chassis, which boasts new springs and stabiliser bars, and adaptive damping designed in-house.
The reason why it can offer so much power but maintain impressive range from an 83kWh battery (not that Tesla officially quotes anything as prosaic as battery sizes) is that it gets a higher-tech, higher-density pack with more efficient cells. You still won't get that 580km with too many 3.5sec motorway-onramp runs, of course.
Tesla has delved deeper into the chassis, which boasts new springs and stabiliser bars, and adaptive damping designed in-house designed for a good balance of ride and handling. It comes with customisable drive modes: Standard, Sport and Track.
If you’re worried your Model Y is losing its nerd-appeal, don’t. There are still touches that keep it in the correct cultural reference zone.
Straight-line speed has always been a Tesla boast, but lots of other EVs can now do that too. And let’s face it, it’s not that hard, as long as you’ve got the components and traction systems to cope. But this Model Y Performance also seems to be pretty serious about providing a sophisticated overall driving package.
For what it’s worth, in “Insane” mode the Model Y Performance achieves its 3.5 seconds in a commendably controlled manner, avoiding the sickeningly brutal takeoff of earlier Tesla models and gathering pace in a linear fashion.
But really, it’s something you’ll do a few times to show your friends and that’s it. The maturity of the new Performance chassis is what really makes this a satisfying go-fast machine. There’s a bit more edge to the low-speed ride than a standard model, but nothing to worry about. All adjustable via the drive modes of course, but there isn’t a massive spread between them (surprising) and there’s a fair bit of handling nuance whichever you choose (also surprising).
We’re not talking Lotus levels of communication, and the steering is still video-game precise-but-vacant, but the way the Performance chassis soaks up bumps on Kiwi backroads and stabilises for the next challenge is pretty impressive. It’s astonishingly grippy (mixed-size tyres, that’s pretty fancy), but not to the point where it doesn’t have interesting things to say about what’s going on underneath.
This new Model Y Performance is something for Tesla to be rather proud of. It’s also something for owners to be rather proud of, albeit in a subtle way. Beyond our car’s striking Ultra Red paintjob (which you can have on any 3 or Y, by the way) the Performance wears specific front and rear fascias, 21-inch “Arachnid” alloys with aero covers, lots of gloss black and a small carbon fibre rear spoiler, with matching carbon dash and door trim inserts.
The red-painted brake calipers look good as well, but don’t get too excited about those. They’re the same brakes as the non-Performance dual-motor. But red. They do the job, though.
Familiar minimalist cabin, although the Y restores the indicator stalk that the new 3 initially deleted. The jury’s out on the Performance Seats with powered thigh cushion extenders, which are unique to this model but still not super-supportive. Some may prefer the relatively flat shape, they just don’t particularly say “sporty” to us.
Everything’s in the screen as always, but it’s a nicer screen in the Performance: up from 15.4in in standard Model Ys to 16in, with thinner bezels and 80% more pixels. Which makes it equally appealing for vehicle-controls, and watching TV/films or playing games. It’s still a really good mobile device, people.
If you’re worried your Model Y is losing its nerd-appeal, don’t. There are still touches that keep it in the correct cultural reference zone. Even little things like the Performance badge, which looks a bit like an aftermarket add-on but is also the graphic used for the puddle lamps. So it’s all official.
It’s only been used on the Model 3 and Model Y since 2024, but it's a development of the Plaid badge used on the fastest Model S and Model X versions from 2021 (never sold in NZ)... itself a reference to the speed above “Ludicrous” in one of Elon Musk’s favourite movies, Spaceballs.
Enough said.