2025 Tesla Model Y Review India – The iPhone of Cars | OVERDRIVE
So far, the iPhone has been your go-to status symbol to show that you’ve made it in life. But thankfully, that can change now because the Tesla Model Y has finally launched in India. Now, that should be reason enough for you to want to get one. But it also helps that it’s priced well. But either way, I need to put food on the table. So, let me tell you what the Tesla Model Y actually feels like in the best that Indian roads have to offer. In the Mumbai automotive landscape of rickshaws, cabs and all manner of SUVs, the Tesla Model Y stands out. [Music] This new look for the Model Y drawn from the Cybert truck gives it a clean neo futuristic vibe that’s quite different from anything else you will find at this price. It’s not flashy in the traditional sense, but it does have size on its side. Surprisingly, the sharp low nose doesn’t have a Tesla badge on it, and even the lighting and surfaces are devoid of much flash or aggression. Now, the Tesla Model Y gives you a massive 116 L frunk. I think that’s probably one of the biggest in the segment, but what that means is you can carry a good amount of stuff in here. Of course, you can carry a few backpacks, but even a small trolley will fit quite easily, and it’s good practicality. You have these ridges here, so things won’t move around too much. and even a small drain plug. So, if you’re carrying say wet clothes or you just put some ice in to chill a few drinks, whatever you want to do, all of that is possible right in here. In profile, the Model Y’s aggressively arched roof line is quite noticeable. The dark 19-in wheels are chunky, and the design goes with the futuristic sense of the car. You might think of the Model Y as an SUV, but ground clearance is 167 mm, a bit less than what you might expect from one. So, you still get a flat, sporty stance. One of the most striking design elements on the Model Y is the indirect light bar at the rear. It looks posh and is an innovative trick to stand out. The duct tail spoiler on the high boot seems to be there for a efficiency. The rear light cluster has that modern three-dimension look to it and the chunky bumper adds some presence. Now, the Model Y has an absolutely massive 938 liter boot. As you can see, this is with all five seats up. It’s fully flat. You can put, I guess, more than a weekend’s worth of luggage here. But here’s the fun part. There is another subspace here. And you might be wondering what I’m carrying. This is the cover for the boot and that fits perfectly in. So, that hassle has been fully dealt with. And this space itself will hold at least a couple of trolleys. So, space is not a problem. And if even that wasn’t enough, you can powerfold both these seats down fully and get up to or more than 2,138 L. [Music] Now, with this whole minimal theme that you get from a Tesla, it really comes through when you sit inside this cabin. You have this panoramic view out. There’s very simple shapes. The dash is nearly flat. You have sharp edges. There’s literally not a button in sight aside from the few that you have on the steering wheel to control the absolute most important functions. And I think it kind of works. It gives you a very stark clean sense which if you are not so much into the flash of things, say in a Mercedes-Benz, this will suit you just right. And it’s done quite smartly, I must say. For example, this whole thing is an air vent. There are no separate vents. And the way it’s sort of integrated in is really quite nice. Even the glove box doesn’t have a separate button for it. fits completely flush. You wouldn’t know it’s a glove box. The centerpiece of the Model Y’s cabin is the 15.4 in touchscreen. Its size is now power for the cost, but few rivals can match how deeply you interact with it. Nearly all of the car’s functions are accessed through here, right down to the drive selector. Yes, it can be overwhelming at first, but you quickly realize that this is one of the more fluid, intuitive interfaces you will come across. display is rich and responsive with the menu logically laid out. While driving, the most important functions are within easy reach. The live vehicle graphic holds some common controls around the car, although we wish the climate controls were in a larger fixed panel at the bottom. The lack of a driver’s instrument cluster is a bit disconcerting at first, but greatly improves visibility, although head-up display could have been a good addition. You don’t get Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, but the TomTom based navigation available natively seems reliable enough. Tesla has a great sense of humor, which you find with the games and gags you can access via the screen like the Mars, Skin, Boom Box, and Whoopy Cushion. You can also watch movies and access music apps right from the screen. Tesla build quality is something that people have spoken of a lot, but in this version of the Model Y, I think it’s quite good. Yes, for 70 lakhs you might get a better feeling interior than some of the more traditional car makers. But as you will see, whatever you touch is soft. Everything here is soft. You have this nice kind of knitted finish here. The felt lining on the door bins on the wireless charging. It all feels nice. Yes, it may not feel as sturdy as say in a BMW or a Mercedes, but it’s there. The front seats are impressive. You have great contouring and thigh support. And unlike the rest of the Model Y wise controls, the seats have the usual physical adjustment buttons on the sides. The cushioning is quite soft, which we hope won’t affect long-d distanceance comfort. It’s India ready with a strong ventilation and heating function. But again, with this B electric architecture, what you do get is massive amounts of space. This will literally hold my entire arm. I have two goodsized cup holders here, two very large wireless chargers and another small deep cubby here. You get two type-C chargers on the front and the large door bins continue with the practical sense. An odd trait in the Model Y is that you adjust steering and mirrors via the scrollers on the wheel. Thankfully, the steering wheel is traditionally shaped and not a yolk as in the Cybert truck. Also, you get an indicator stock and not buttons on the wheel for it. Here’s a look at all the features the Model Y offers. The India spec Tesla Model Y will not get full self-driving, but will come with the kind of level two ADAS features we are accustomed to in the segment for an additional rupees 6 lakh. These will be rolled out via updates once the cars hit the roads. Safety is a strong Tesla attribute with the Model Y scoring a high score five-star Euro MCAP rating. Now the Model Y is based on a born electric platform and of course you have a lot of efficiencies and it really does show in the back seat. Now the 2890 mm rebate that’s quite long for this segment or this size of car and a lot of it has been put into creating a nice space here. Now yes this is the dark cabin. It does sort of make you feel a little hemmed in but you can pay extra to get that all white cabin which I think will add to that sense of space. But anyway, as it stands, this massive glass area and these quite large windows, they give you that sense of openness that you get in the front as well. So, that helps. As you can see, I have a lot of place to just tuck my feet in. These seats are pretty high up. They’re placed pretty high up. A good deal of knee room. These seats are set to my driving position. And I must say that unlike many EVs, the floor isn’t too high. So, as you can see, I am not sitting in too much of a knees up position. I have decent, it’s not amazing, but I have decent thigh support. And I also must say that these seats, they have this soft cushy feel to them. I don’t know how they will be over a longer journey, but as it stands, they are nice and softly padded. I also get this recline function, and as you can see, I can really stretch myself out to a good extent. You also have a full boss mode like in many luxury cars in the Model Y, accessed via the 8-in screen at the back. Now coming to the kind of amenities you have here. You have this 8 in touchscreen and you can do a lot of stuff in it. You can play a lot of the games such as beach buggy, fallout shelter that you have here. You can play a lot of your YouTube, Netflix. You can even connect Bluetooth headphones to it. So that’s going to be fun forever sitting here. Other than that, you have your AC controls. Even the vents here are controlled right through the screen. You have your seat controls to fold these seats. Even the recline function can be done with this. And this is a heated seat. So you have that function as well. And then of course you have the usual this armrest and this is neatly arranged this middle headrest and two type-C charge ports. [Music] Tesla is famously secretive about its car specs. Although it has revealed that this Model Y rear wheel drive has a 500 km WLTP range. In our short time with it, we think over 400 km can be easily expected in urban conditions in the real world. It seems like this rear wheel drive variant is fed by a 63 kWh battery pack and can accept up to 175 kW of DC fast charging. Tesla will set up its supercharger network over time in Mumbai and Delhi first, eventually expanding into other cities. The Model Y uses a CCS2 plug in India, so it should be compatible with existing charging infrastructure. An AC wallbox will be provided for home charging, but the Tesla charges at 11 kW. [Music] Now the first thing that strikes you as soon as you start driving this Model Y is just how quiet it is on the inside. It’s a loud noisy day as it usually is in peak Mumbai traffic, but you seem to be sort of cocooned from it really quite well. This is just as good as or if not a lot better than some of the luxury brands that Tesla is competing with in our market. And the other thing that also seems to stand out is the kind of visibility that you have. Yes, you don’t exactly know where the nose of the car is, but you have a really bright, clear set of 360° cameras and this really large windscreen. The kind of view out it gives you, the sill is very low all around you. So, you have this kind of theatrical kind of view that really makes placing this car on a road easy. Now, yeah, the Model Y is not as small as you would expect or think of when you see pictures or videos of it. So, in that regard, it helps. The cameras are helpful since visibility out the rear view mirror is not great with the sloping roof line. Not having an instrument cluster is a bit odd at first, but you soon get used to the screen readout that falls in a broader line of sight. Tesla doesn’t quote power or torque numbers, but it is understood that the Model Y rear wheel drive makes 299 PS and 420 Nm. Tesla has said that the rear wheel drive will do 0 to 105.9 seconds, which makes this quite a brisk car for our roads. Now, we’re driving this in the base chill mode for the most part, and it’s perfectly all right for the kind of everyday driving that you will probably do in the Model Y on your regular daily commute. You can also choose two regen modes. We’ve kept it in the reduced mode, but I must say generally in in all of the cars movements in terms of how it builds speed or even how the regen works, it’s very fluid, very linear. The kind of switch from power to coasting to regen is very natural. So, so soon enough I’ve just about driven it for maybe 15 km and I can gauge what I want to do with the car very easily. As you press on in the chill mode, the torque doesn’t come in a sharp gush, but in the mellow swell that is manageable. The standard mode is slightly sharper at higher speeds and more energetic, but still rolls off softly enough to be used for everyday driving. Now, that’s not to say that this is not an exciting car. Even the base model Y has dollops of torque as you ring it out. You do get three steering modes as well. Light, standard, and heavy. Now, the light mode, I think, is best suited for very low speed parking maneuvers and so on. The standard mode, I think, is the sort of default go-to mode where it adds a bit of heft. Now, now the steering could have done with a bit more precision. It’s quite dead on center, but it seems to weigh up aggressively as you turn in. It could have felt more cohesive. Maybe the driveby wire tech from the cybert truck could be a good addition to the Model Y with the responses that it brings. Now for this India spec Model Y, Tesla has worked on tuning the suspension to our conditions. It runs on 19-in wheels. And yes, as you might expect, there is a bit of firmness, especially on the kind of uneven surfaces that we usually have in our cities. So, while it can get a bit noisy at times, you notice that the car itself remains largely level. It’s not jarring. It doesn’t sort of come through into the cabin. So, in that sense, especially with that great sound deadening, you have that sense of being cocooned in a space exactly like how you might want in a luxury car, which makes for a nice elevated experience. We can’t quite tell you how the Model Y handles in the time we spent with it, but like many EVs, it should be a secure experience. It probably won’t be as sharp as some rivals, but you can expect good things given the low slung mass and low ride height. The brakes work confidently without the region system getting in the way all that much. Now going with that quiet very luxurious sense that I was speaking of you also get the kind of solid steady tide down feel that you want from a luxury car. So even it’s say faster speeds we haven’t gone very fast but whatever we’ve done the car seems solid and it gives you that confidence which seems to go with that overall theme of this being a car that you can get used to very easily which I think will work for a lot of people who have been looking at buying a Tesla all this while priced at rupes 59.89 89 lakh onwards for this base rearwheel drive version. The Tesla Model Y seems to make sense in its segment. Yes, it charges a premium, but you get a fresh smart experience in the cabin, equally smart looks and a tech package that seems as well sorted as you might want in a car. It could have had slightly more direct steering, but is comfortable, refined, and offers a kind of elevated techforward experience that reminds one of another piece of high-quality equipment, the iPhone. [Music]
We put the Tesla Model Y through its paces on Indian roads to find out — can it really handle India? From ride quality to ground clearance, cabin practicality to EV range in real-world conditions, this is a full review of one of the most anticipated electric cars globally, now finally on Indian soil.
Is the Model Y the benchmark for EVs in India, or is it too global for our roads? Watch and decide if this really is the “iPhone of cars”.
#TeslaModelY #EVIndia #TeslaIndiaReview #ModelYIndia #TeslaIndia
Clarifications:
The India-spec Model Y gets a 9-speaker audio system. Boot space is 938L with 822L behind seats and 116L frunk
00:00 – Introduction
00:37 – Exterior styling & dimensions
01:12 – Frunk space
02:12 – Boot space
02:52 – Cabin layout & features
05:17 – Seat comfort
05:54 – Steering mounted controls
06:13 – Features & Safety list
06:40 – Rear seat space & convenience features
08:41 – Driving Range & performance
09:15 – Battery capacity & charging
09:30 – Home charger
09:43 – Sound insulation & visibility
10:42 – Performance numbers & acceleration
11:09 – Regen Modes
11:48 – Chill & Standard modes
12:07 – Steering modes
12:37 – Suspension tune
13:55 – Pricing & conclusion
Camera: Raju Gupta, Sohini Dutt
Editing – Ashish Vedak, Ajay Ghate
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