Tesla Model Y: interior, dashboard & infotainment
Tesla’s minimalist cabin will continue to divide people, but the quality has taken a step in the right direction
One of the first things you’ll notice in the facelifted Model Y compared to the car it replaces is an uptick in interior quality and ambience. The materials look and feel higher quality than before, and the design is more cohesive (such as the way the dash now flows into the door cards). In the cars we’ve tried, build quality also seems a little better.
The overall layout of the cabin is pretty similar to before, pared back to just a steering wheel in front of the driver and a large central touchscreen dominating the dash – the same 15.4 inches as before (though rear-seat passengers now get an eight-inch screen as standard).
Obviously, this layout means you control almost everything in the car through the screen, but Tesla has been better than most at making this feel intuitive, helped by the clarity and high processing speed of the system – it’s impressive how quickly you can swipe around the navigation maps for instance, with no perceptible lag or loss of detail. On the flip side, everything is native, so you still can’t use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto (though third-party fixes can make both available, if you’re attached to either).
