[MUSIC PLAYING]
CARLOS LAGO: The test
track's back open, yay!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
And construction has
apparently restarted, too,
so you'll hear people
banging on wood
and sawing stuff as
they build those homes.
Anyway, we've owned our Tesla
Model Y for about three months.
And that's been
really frustrating.
Not that there's anything
really wrong with the car,
maybe aside from
the ride quality,
but it's been frustrating
because we haven't been
able to test this thing yet.
Why is that frustrating?
Well, it's a Tesla Model Y
Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive
Performance, with the
Performance upgrade.
It has performance
in its name twice.
And with that kind of
performance being promised,
you want to find out how
much you actually get.
So now we get to finally attach
our data acquisition hardware
to this thing and find out how
much it weighs, how quickly it
can stop, how hard
it can corner,
and how fast it can accelerate.
But before we do all that,
make sure to like, comment,
subscribe, and visit
the links below
to see more about Edmunds
Long-Term Vehicles
and what our
ownership experience
has been like for this car.
So we're going to start out
by weighing the Model Y. Now,
we weigh cars by
putting each tire
on a scale at the same time, and
then summing all the weights.
And that gives you the
total weight of the vehicle,
and also the front
and rear distribution.
Why do you weigh a car?
Well, it's important to help
fill out the dynamic painting
of a vehicle.
So it can help you
understand attributes
about why a vehicle
behaves the way it does.
It also helps you
classify a vehicle
depending on what you
think it should weigh
and what it should weigh within
its group of competitors.
Yes, we made sure to
fill up the Model Y
before we weighed it,
because, you know,
all those electrons
are real heavy.
The total weight of our Model
Y Performance Performance
is 4,419 pounds.
And yes, that's more
than the Model 3, the car
that this is based on.
But hey, that's what you get
when you make that car bigger
and add more stuff to it.
And 21-inch wheels, those
certainly aren't helping.
This is also lighter, though,
than the Model X that we had
earlier and the model
S we had before that--
and quite a margin,
especially versus the Model X.
What's impressive, though,
is, the weights that I've seen
published for other
fast luxury SUVs--
like the BMW X3M and the
Mercedes Benz GLC 63 AMG--
this is actually--
what we see here
is lighter than the weights
that's been published
for those, so good on Tesla.
If you're looking
for a fast SUV,
and you want it to
be really light,
I think it's between this
or the Alpha Romeo Stelvio
Quadrifoglio.
A lot of hard names
to pronounce there.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We perform brake tests by
doing repeated emergency stops
from 60 miles an hour.
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We report the shortest
stopping distance
we record, and also report on
the performance of the braking
system.
Do the brakes heat up like
crazy over a period of stops?
Do the distances
increase like crazy?
This is a measurement
of the effectiveness
of the tires, which gives you
the shortest stop possible,
and also the braking
system as a whole.
We feel this is important
because an emergency stop is
the most high-performance
thing most drivers are
going to do when they drive.
So we also use this as an
opportunity to talk about pedal
feel and ABS sensation, as well.
[TIRES SQUEALING]
So our best stop
from 60 was 108 feet,
so that mean there's
a lot of grip
in these Pirelli P-Zero tires.
But overall braking
performance, repeated stops,
was solid, as well,
because we only
got as high as 109 feet
after multiple stops.
And that speaks to the braking
system's capabilities overall.
Our testers also reported
really nice pedal
feel-- that I can
agree with having just
done that-- minimal nosedive,
and plenty of stability-- so
overall, a really strong result
for the Model Y Performance
performance.
One of the most traditional
ways to measure handling
is through what's
called a skid pad test.
What's a skid pad?
Well, it's a 200-foot
diameter circle
that you drive around as quickly
as possible in both directions,
and you hold a constant
radius while you're doing so.
Why do you do that?
Well, we've got to
back up a little bit.
When you turn left or right,
you feel that sensation often
in your gut going the
opposite direction.
That's called a g-force.
You're making one
when you're turning.
Now, when you turn and sustain
the speed around a corner--
or in this case, the skid pad--
you're going to
sustain a g-force.
Now, the higher that g-force
is, the faster you're
going to go around the circle.
That means the more grip
you have in your tire.
That works for the
other direction.
Now, what we do is we go around
the circle in either direction
as fast as possible for one lap.
And we average the left
and right g-force results.
And that tells us, effectively,
how hard the car can corner.
[TIRES SQUEALING]
The Model Y averaged
0.95 g on their skid pad,
just under that
coveted 1.0 g number.
And that's a lot of stick.
You could make the argument
that the grip in the tires
outweighs the penalty
in ride quality.
Some of us at the
office are still
kind of on the fence about
that, but we'll let you decide.
Now, that's also
the highest result
we've ever recorded
from a Tesla.
It's a really strong performance
from an SUV in general.
As for other
handling attributes,
we also ran it around
our handling course.
And we noted that the
steering is very quick,
and that feels good.
But it also can make
for a lot of body roll.
But the roll is pretty
well-managed in this case.
But again, that's probably also
because of the ride quality.
The only constant was
the stability control
and that you always feel that
nibbling at the front brakes
when you're trying to
drive as fast as possible.
And you also don't
get full acceleration
until the wheel is
basically straight.
So not an ideal car
for setting lap times,
but certainly a
fun one to drive.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Finally, we get to find
out how fast it is, though.
But a few things that we
have to address first.
Now, all of our testing
here uses a GPS data logger
that talks to a number of
different satellites 100
times per second.
That's way more
than your phone does
with the performance
timer on there,
so you can trust our results.
Too, we report 0 to 60
1/4 mile with trap speed,
and 0 to 60 with
one foot rollout.
The one foot rollout
basically subtracts a foot
from that acceleration.
And no, that's not realistic.
It's what every major brand
does out there that tests cars.
So you can compare that
result to the results
that they get when you want
to talk to your friends
about cars at the bar.
Hey, you know, whatever.
Now, a word about
weather correction.
We normally apply weather
correction to every vehicle
that we test so that we
can equalize performance
between different
days, accounting
for humidity, temperature,
and barometric pressure.
The thing is EVs don't rely on
atmosphere to make performance,
so we don't apply the
weather correction to EVs.
Let's get tested.
Launching a Tesla
is about as easy
as it gets for a production car.
The only thing you
really have to do
is make sure you aren't
in Chill acceleration.
You have to be in Sport, or
I like to call it No Chill.
That's probably
what it should say.
And then you just slap
the accelerator like this.
That never gets tiring.
That never gets boring.
That's quick.
The best acceleration
we recorded
was 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds.
With one foot rollout,
it was 3.4 seconds.
And the 1/4 mile was 11.8
seconds at 115.6 miles an hour.
That's really, really fast.
And what's nice is, we've
also had an experience
with previous Teslas that
the acceleration diminishes
dramatically after
multiple acceleration runs.
That wasn't the case
with this Model Y.
The performance kept
up, which I guess
is appropriate for a Model
Y Performance performance.
It's so silly.
There it is, Model Y
Performance Performance tested.
And what did we learn?
Well, it's a heavy-ish
vehicle, but not as
heavy as some other high
performance SUVs out there.
It stops short and consistent.
It holds a respectable amount
of g's on the skid pad.
And it goes like stink
in a straight line.
I think that makes it pretty
deserving of the Performance
Performance name it claims,
so good on you Tesla.
Now the question is, what
should we drag race it against?
I have some ideas, but I
want to hear yours, too.
So leave them in the
comments below, down there.
I'm going to go join you.
