2021 Tesla Model Y Long Range with Acceleration Boost Upgrade - Review - Canada

Tesla Model Y Long Range + Boost 2021 - title image

Tesla Model Y

Long Range + Boost 2021

9.8/10not logged37 votes

Best birthday give I ever got myself

You will LOVE this car!

23 Jul 2021

Tesla Model Y Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • The over-the-air updates a always makes your car feel brand new, constant improvements and constant new features.

  • Range, range is more than I need, it's enough to get you from a to b 90% of the time without stopping. And if you're on a long trip, it's enough where you only really need to stop when you should be stopping anyways. Trip planning accuracy is very good. Slightly conservative when it comes to charging stops which is good for beginners, but if you tell the car where you're going, 90% of the time you will arrive with the percentage it told you you would.

  • Customer service, half the time I have ever needed to interact with customer service, they have driven over an hour to my house to take care of it. The other half of the time I had to drive an hour to the Tesla service center, and they gave me a loaner vehicle. Not sure how common it is but I've never gotten a loaner vehicle before my Tesla, they even gave me the vehicle I asked for which was a nice touch. It was a model X by the way.

  • Infotainment, built-in youtube, netflix, twitch, built-in web browser, built-in games, everything you could ask for, great if you have kids, or if you just like having fun.

  • The sound system is amazing, super loud and high quality.

  • Running costs, for $7 I can go 500 km. That used to cost me $30..

  • Security, Sentry mode, dash cam, pin to drive, pin to open glove box, even dog mode and overheat protection.

  • Ability to reliably charge from home. My car starts charging at 1:15am every morning. Right when I told it to. Not only does this ensure my car is fully charged when I wake up, but that time is also extremely extremely clean from a power production standpoint so I can do even more to help the environment.

  • Autopilot, such a convenience feature, driving isn't hard but all the micro movements the car handles for you. I bought FSD and navigate on autopilot makes long distance driving super easy!

  • Superchargers, massive selling point!!! The car knows where every supercharger within your range are, how many people are currently charging there, the stations speed, if there are any issues, everything, I've mentioned how good the trip planner is, even with supercharging it has perks, when you're driving to a supercharger, the car will automatically start heating up the battery so that the car can accept a lot of power so you can charge the car quite a bit quicker. Most charging stops for me are only a

  • Safety, not only does this car have a crazy amount of active safety measures, the passive safety including how the car feels and handles is impeccable

  • The ergonomics, my lord, best seats I've ever sat in. You can drive for 10 hours and it still feels like you're sitting on a cloud. The heated seats are quite powerful on their highest setting and it just feels relaxing.

  • One pedal driving, makes driving so much easier in cities, and it makes me feel more confident while driving because accelerating and decelerating is a much faster transition.

  • Convenience, ask the car to take you somewhere, that's it you're done you're on your way. All the charging stops everything it's all figured out for you. 

  • The app, everything from climate control, windows, locks, it's all in there. You can summon the car, kind of a gimmick at the moment, but I use it when shoveling my driveway or cutting my grass!

  • The heat pump, instant heat, instant cold, very powerful, and super efficient. The car's ability to move heat instead of always creating heat creates a much more stable driving experience and range.

  • The cost of maintenance. I have owned my car for 9 months now, 15,000km. I have not spent a single penny on maintenance. I've had to fill up my windshield wiper fluid once, and I just used the bottle I had from my last car.

  • Phone as a key, works perfectly. You just walk up to the car and get in and go.

  • The all glass roof is such a lovely touch that makes the vehicle feel so much larger

  • Storage space, not only is this vehicle huge, you also have a large frunk and a sub trunk.

  • Performance, just go for a test drive. Absolutely nuts! With the acceleration boost, 0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds. Instantaneous response, it's really incredible!

Cons:
  • Cold weather, I live up in Canada, gets pretty cold up here. Depending on how you drive you can see anywhere from a 10% to 30% reduction in range when it's cold. Preheating the vehicle is by far your best friend with that. Because the model y has a heat pump. It can suck the heat out of the battery.


    So in the winter I tell the car to preheat about half an hour before I leave, the car is perfectly warm and toasty when I get in, and I get much better efficiency. Who wants to drive an ice c

  • FSD/Summon/Elon time, this is very similar to my other point about not expecting something until you see it. There are constant improvements to the car, but sometimes you'll have to wait quite a bit to have a particular feature or fix implemented.


    Sometimes they have a fix within 6 hours to a problem, but other times it takes much longer than initially anticipated.

  • On my model, before they changed it, the piano black interior is not my favorite, did a stealth ppf wrap on all the interior. Piano black should never be in a car!

  • The all glass roof does let in quite a bit of heat in the summer. Highly recommend getting a ceramic tint to block a lot of the heat.

  • You will worry about battery degradation, dont... Sometimes if you get the car into a rhythm, and you don't push the car that much, the car will start to lose track of its real range, and because it's conservative you're estimated rated range will start going you're estimated rated range will start going down.


    Usually just using a bigger chunk of the battery so that the car can re understand how much capacity the battery has fixes this issue, you're not losing remotely as much range as y

  • Initial quality, had some panel misalignments, had a dent in the front had a dent in the front bumper, they replaced the bumper and realigned the panels for free. These are just attributed to growing pains within the company.

  • Learning curve, this is more of just an EV thing, it's going to take a day or two to get used to one pedal driving, the lack of sound, the insane, these vehicles are such a different Beast, it takes a tiny bit of adopting, but it's all for the better

  • Suspension, it's a little rough. A little A little firm. You can reduce your tire pressure to get a smoother ride, I actually increased my tire pressure to get better efficiency because I don't mind a little bit of a rough ride.

  • There are some updates that a lot of customers have been asking for that have not been implemented. I would recommend not not assuming you're going to get a feature until that feature is actually seen on the vehicle, a good example of this is showing the side fender cameras on the main screen when changing lanes or when you have the blinker on.

  • App and voice commands, they need a little bit of work, a lot of voice commands that I feel like should be in there or not, and a lot of features that should be in the app are not there.

    There is a big update coming for both the car and the app, so they might be in there, but like I said don't assume they are until you see them.


    Changing driving modes using voice commands, opening the glove box, or rolling the windows down all the way from the app are some of the big ones.

Considered buying

Tesla Cybertruck

Tri-motor

example image of Tesla Cybertruck

The Attractions:

Great value, great feature set, great price, durable as hell

The Dealbreakers:

Not a truck person, I don't like vehicles that are fairly large. The model Y is about as big as I would want to go.

Tesla Model X

Plaid

example image of Tesla Model X

The Attractions:

Bigger than the S, additional features that are not present on the model Y

The Dealbreakers:

Too large, feels kind of like a Faberge egg.

Hyundai Kona Electric

64kwh 2021

example image of Hyundai Kona Electric

The Attractions:

Quick, heat pump, decently efficient, moderate range.

The Dealbreakers:

It just felt off. It didn't feel like a from the ground up ev, it just kind of felt like a gas car with a motor and battery slapped in it. not the fastest charging. Not as good of a value compared to a Tesla. Now having a Tesla I can also confirm I just never want to deal with a dealership ever again. Also all the drama with the battery fires.

Owner Review

Best birthday give I ever got myself

Bought the car as a 24th birthday present to myself, upgraded from a 2018 Hyundai Elantra.

Was initially looking to upgrade to the Kona EV, test drove the Kona but decided to also test drive the Model Y.

3 hours after my Tesla test drive, I had made the purchase. I fell in love with the car within about 5 minutes of driving.

From the time of ordering to delivery was about a month. I ordered a Red 2021 Long Range with FSD, black interior, and the 19-in Geminis.

Had some initial issues with fit and finish upon delivery. All issues were very quickly addressed either during the pickup process, or during additional servicing with no additional cost.

Was originally planning on purchasing the acceleration boost for christmas, ended up buying it 2 hours after picking up the vehicle, vehicle, would highly recommend it. It just adds an extra cherry on top of the performance!

It looks great, it handles great, suspension is a tad rough for the price point, but you truly feel like you're flying a spaceship, the performance is insane.

I love autopilot, I use it 95% of the time that I am on the road.

The in-car navigation and infotainment system is very good, it is very hard to run out of range in this vehicle. You have to try to run out of range. It really does hold your hand. Sometimes a little too much. But once you get good enough that you don't need hand holding especially with range, you can start to override the car. This started happening for me after about a week or two. You start to understand how the car will work or how efficiently you can drive and you start to know the routes you take.

This is just because the car is very conservative with its planning. I would highly suggest by the way, set the display in the vehicle to percent instead of distance. Percent makes it way easy to understand the range because the miles display is not based on your driving so it is misleading in my opinion.

Knowing that you're at 75%, and you'll reach your destination with 65% is way more convenient.

Other than the quality issues that some vehicles have, most of which can be fixed very easily, this vehicle in my opinion is damn near perfect.

It's extremely efficient, it's extremely convenient to use, it's insanely smart, the engineering of the thermal management system and battery management system is utter perfection.

The over-the-air updates are genius and impressive, everything from dog mode, camp mode, all the little features that Tesla thinks about. This car makes every other car seem like it's at least a decade old, every infotainment system, feels like a 2007 Garmin GPS.

I've put on about 15,000 km since I got the car in late October, I have an average efficiency of 195 wh/km but that's mainly due to just how much fun I love having in this car. If you put your foot down, you will have a smile on your face. 

If you drive normally this car is extremely efficient, and I've done quite a few trips as low as about 140 wh/km on the highway.

I would highly recommend anyone who is curious about an electric vehicle, sit down, take some time out of your day to analyze how you drive, how much you spend on gas, maintenance, etc.

Ask your insurance company figure out all the financials, and figure out if an EV would be more convenient for you. But if you drive a lot, and you have the ability to charge from home, in my opinion the Tesla Model Y is a no-brainer!

Absolutely the best purchasing decision I have ever made! And I can tell you now, I will never buy a gas car ever again..

Long-term average consumption

Long-term average consumption: 195 Wh/km

See Tech Specs - Tesla Model Y

Tesla referral link

matthew66192

Tesla Model Y Photos

Tesla Model Y - Image 1 from the photo gallery Tesla Model Y - Image 2 from the photo gallery Tesla Model Y - Image 3 from the photo gallery Tesla Model Y - Image 4 from the photo gallery

Discussion

  • 2021-07-23 08:13:24 UTC

    modely Y

    Huge review! I rated 10/10! Thanks a lot. I'm glad you didn't just write the pluses, but the minuses as well. No car is absolutely perfect. :)
  • 2021-07-23 08:20:58 UTC

    cybertruck

    Cybertruck is too big, I wouldn't want to park in the city center with that.
    Or in a shopping mall garage. :-))
  • 2021-07-23 11:27:07 UTC

    great review 10/10

    myevreview is really growing on me thanks to articles like this one. many pros and cons - fun to read

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