Tesla Model Y Performance 2026 Review

The original Tesla Model Y Performance was like the polarising deep-cut third album from your favourite band — the one that followed the sweet, well-liked first recording (the Model 3) and the slightly flawed second go (the hard-riding, pre-facelift Model Y).

Landing in Australia in March 2023, there was no question that the first Model Y Performance was very quick — 3.7 seconds from 0-100km/h was territory not long vacated by supercars. But it was also brutally firm on broken pavement and hair-trigger responsive to any input. Entertaining and crazy, but not always ideal as a fast family SUV.

Having brought fully electric vehicles firmly into Australia’s mainstream, Tesla — once staunch in its ways — is a changing beast that has been more responsive to customer and reviewer feedback over the last 24 months than ever before.

The arrival of the ‘Highland’ facelift of the Model 3 sedan in January 2024, and then the ‘Juniper’ upgrade to the Model Y in April this year, ushered in dramatically more compliant ride quality, big strides in build quality and increasing amounts of driver customisation, shaving off some of the many classic Tesla rough edges.

Now, Tesla’s de facto Australian flagship — the hotted-up Model Y Performance — has come under the microscope. Priced at $89,400 before on-road costs, the ‘MYP’ has picked up the standard model’s quality and cabin improvements, and a similar attitude adjustment.

It’s quicker, but it’s also softer, quieter and more approachable than before.

That isn’t to say that, mechanically, Tesla has dialled back the suspension firmness and called it a day. Instead, there has been a ground-up rethink of how to suspend the MYP, starting with complete replacement of the old model’s fixed-rate dampers in favour of a new two-mode, adaptively damped set-up.

There’s a new rear motor, bumping power to what we believe is 461kW combined (glimpses of ‘old’ Tesla are still seen in the firm’s refusal to officially cite basics like power or precise battery size). The nickel manganese cobalt pack is understood to now measure 79kWh usable with a claimed 580km range (WLTP).

Other Performance-only spec takes in 21-inch wheels (in ‘Arachnid 2.0’ design), red brake calipers, unique front and rear aprons, a slightly larger 16-inch interior screen, carbonfibre trim, and excellent new sports front seats.

The top-end variant builds on the spec of the $20,000-cheaper but passively damped Long Range AWD (LRAWD) grade, which itself makes 378kW and quotes a little more range (600km). LRAWD includes 19-inch wheels, 16-speaker stereo, 15.4-inch screen, acoustic glass, heated/cooled front seats, wireless charging, a glass roof, and power tailgate.

We spent a week with the new Model Y Performance, covering 1500km across the ways and byways of New South Wales — plus Canberra’s regional routes — to get a sense of whether this sporty SUV is now more of a team player, making it fit for purpose for family duties.

Servicing for the Model Y is condition-based, while Tesla maintains a subpar vehicle warranty in Australia (four years/80,000km). The drive unit and battery of the MYP is warranted separately and for a competitive eight years/192,000km.

Our first five days were effectively manually driven, with our last two coinciding with our tester being pushed Tesla’s Full Self Driving (Supervised) update in time for a road trip to and from the Australian Capital Territory. It’s a fascinating — and almost certainly industry-changing — $10,100 option standalone, also available currently for $149 per month.

How does the Model Y Performance drive?

To us, there are only four reasons you’d consider splashing another $20K on the MYP over the already accomplished LRAWD: first, if you like the way the Performance-exclusive styling changes look; second, if you like the Performance-only seats (understandable); third, if you just want to say you have the most expensive Tesla currently on sale here.

But the fourth reason is, to us, the decider: you’d buy the MYP if you plan to seriously push your Model Y hard and, for some reason, the inherently more dynamically capable Model 3 Performance sedan just doesn’t work for you. Maybe you need the space, as well as the pace.

And pace, it has. The switch to new permanent-magnet synchronous rear motor hardware has seen a further five percent (0.2sec) lopped from the MYP’s 0-100km/h time, now quoted at 3.5 seconds.

Switch from numb Chill or placid Normal acceleration modes to Insane and it’s just that — this is a rapid SUV, no doubt aided by Tesla’s admirable dedication to weight reduction. This SUV weighs ‘only’ 2033kg (tare), which is light for a high-performance electric crossover.

Electric cars going fast in a straight line got boring a long time ago. What Tesla needed to work on — and it has — was the MYP’s capacity to go fast around corners, and particularly corners on Australian country roads that often involve odd cambers and menacing mid-bend lumps and bumps.

That’s the kind of terrain that would really flummox the previous Model Y Performance. While the old car had huge power and sticky tyres, it exhibited poor body control and was in the habit of violently pitching its rear end when striking imperfections. That simply meant you’d have to slow right down for your own comfort and security, making the power irrelevant.

How things have changed! The new adaptively-damped suspension is a revelation, with a substantial uplift in ride quality — not just urban but also on broken-up B-roads.

While a faint echo of the old car’s underdamped rear-end is found in the default ‘Normal’ damping mode, switching to ‘Sport’ interestingly retains nearly all Normal’s compliance but reins in rear-end vertical movement. Sport damping massively expands the Model Y Performance’s dynamic driving envelope, and the body feels glued to the road.

Now, the symphony is almost — almost — in tune. There’s power (so much power), there is good body control, and there is huge grip, both mechanical and chemical, thanks to staggered 275/35R21 (rear) and 255/35R21 (front) Pirelli P Zero boots.

But the steering still isn’t quite right. Tesla’s familiar and digitally muscular steering feel is present and accounted for… until it isn’t. Select a weighting level (‘Light’ is true to its name, while it is heavy in ‘Normal’ and genuinely weighty in ‘Heavy’) and there’s an aloof yet competent steerability to the Model Y Performance.

And then you hit a mid-corner bump and the steering just goes… quiet. The car isn’t thrown off course; you’re absolutely flying through a bend, suctioned to the tarmac, safe as houses, but the steering wheel just stops reporting what’s going on and lolls around the selected angle of attack.

It’s a weird sensation because you know the Model Y Performance is ‘with you’ — the chassis is fantastic — yet feedback from the electric power steering can’t keep up with what’s going on. In these moments you feel faintly like a passenger. But then the road surface calms down, the corner recedes, and the steering is back in action.

With the suspension having benefitted from a properly thorough do-over, it’d be great to see Tesla tear down smart-steering EVs like the Porsche Taycan and BMW i4 and, well, make the Model 3 and Model Y steer like that!

In other situations — commuting and on the highway — frankly, the Model Y Performance does a good impression of the LRAWD. Despite low-profile tyres and big 21s, the ride is compliant, the cabin is hushed, and the drive is refined and relaxed.

The fact the Performance model’s steering isn’t as good as it should be has the effect of dimming a key reason to spend up on the MYP over the much cheaper LRAWD. It’s true that the Long Range ultimately does not have the bandwidth of the Performance, but we’d only chase that bandwidth if it steered the way we wanted.

All the above applies when you’re driving manually. But what about when you aren’t?

For our first five days with the MYP, our tester did not have FSD (Supervised). It did have standard-fit Autopilot with Autosteer, which works well on the highway as a very strong, very smooth kind of adaptive cruise control with lane centring. Every couple of minutes the driver is prompted to put their hands on the wheel.

Our final two days saw FSD (Supervised) unleashed, and we used it for over 500km of monotonous, boring driving on the Hume Highway and clogged arterial roads in Sydney. It isn’t cheap, but the current subscription fee of $149 per month does make sense.

In 95 percent of driving situations we encountered, FSD (Supervised) behaved like a very advanced learner driver. It’s able to handle complex traffic scenarios with your supervision — and your actual intervention is only required rarely.

In our hands, FSD (Supervised) occasionally picked the wrong lane for an upcoming exit, it could be flummoxed by tight entries/exits, and it also tended to be around five percent underspeed on the highway.

The rest of the time it’s incredibly impressive, helping to lower stress, fatigue and anxiety. We liked letting the computer do the boring driving, delivering us to the start of a fun driving road. Is that the future? Maybe.

Across our test, we averaged efficiency of 14.1kWh/100km in urban driving (560km range) and 16.5kWh/100km on the highway (478km range).

How is the Model Y Performance’s interior?

There are three changes to the interior of the Model Y Performance when compared to the LRAWD: carbonfibre trim, new sports seats and a slightly (four percent) larger touchscreen lifted from the Chinese-market Model Y L three-row SUV.

The bigger screen? Nice to have. Grey carbon bits? Sure — it’s the fast one. The sports pews, however, are superb: the Model Y Performance now has some of the best seats of any car below $100,000 driveaway.

Trimmed in perforated vinyl but heated and cooled as standard — alleviating the thermal annoyances of PVC — the Model Y Performance has black upholstery by default, though $1500 buys a stark white/black interior that we ultimately prefer. Don’t be afraid, mum or dad: the white seats wipe clean of stains with a damp cloth.

While the normal Model Y variants have decent seats, the sports seats have considerably more lateral bolstering, more aggressive four-way lumbar adjustment and a new power thigh extender piece, like that found in BMW cars. Only a massage function and adjustable side bolsters are missing here.

You’re probably already aware of the Model Y’s polarising and ultra-minimal cabin design. While we maintain that a small driver’s instrument cluster display would be a convenient addition, you do get used to the single-screen layout very quickly.

Tesla is reportedly considering the future addition of Apple CarPlay, but for now, the display is limited to a proprietary infotainment system that works extremely well. The menus are easily navigable and there are plentiful apps — integrated navigation supplemented with different music and streaming options (Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, Netflix) and a browser.

Over-the-air software updates have historically arrived with regularity, supplementing the features of even older Tesla products, making the car’s infotainment system look and function more like that of a smartphone than a traditional vehicle.

Measuring 4796mm in length, riding on a 2890mm wheelbase, the Model Y has a roomy back seat with good headroom and legroom for rear passengers beneath a fixed glass roof that is better-tinted than before, but which could still use, in our view, a power sunshade.

Fabulous packaging extends in both dimensions, with a large boot with vast under-floor storage supplemented by a generous sealed frunk with drain hole. However, no spare wheel and tyre is available.

The final verdict

There is no doubt that the updated 2026 Tesla Model Y Performance is a highly competent sports SUV. Putting its powertrain to one side, there is vast bang-for-buck on offer here in the power on tap, combined with a sensational chassis that is finally possessed of the body control required to exploit its talents.

Only the steering remains as a sore point, stopping us from fully connecting with the Model Y Performance. There’s a fantastic car on display here, and we think more attention to the steering’s ability to deal with road imperfections will bring out the full bandwidth of its considerable talents.

If you love sporty SUVs, we’d still consider buying the MYP over the LRAWD if you prefer its adaptive suspension (test drive them back-to-back), and if you want the best possible seats. $20K is a big jump, no doubt, but there are some things the Performance does better.

Still, we suspect the talented, if less sporting, Long Range AWD model will suit the needs of most Australian families just as well, or better. And for a lot less money.