Tesla Model Y review: reliability & safety rating
Reliability and build quality might not be Tesla’s strong suit, but the Model Y does boast a five-star rating and high scores in the Euro NCAP crash safety tests
| Euro NCAP | Adult protection | Child protection | Safety assistance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 stars (2022) | 97% | 87% | 98% |
We can’t comment on the long-term reliability of the Model Y just yet, as it only went on sale in the UK in 2021. As a general rule, electric cars are more reliable than their petrol or diesel counterparts, as they have fewer components that can go wrong, although Tesla’s history of poor build quality is the one caveat to that notion. The Model Y does at least boast an impressive 5-star Euro NCAP safety rating and Tesla’s autopilot system.
Tesla Model Y reliability & problems
The Model Y is a bit too new to judge its reliability, but we gain some insights from Tesla and the Model 3’s performance in the most recent Driver Power owner satisfaction survey. For starters, the Model 3 managed to finish ninth in the list of the 75 cars to own, however, it received a fairly poor score in the reliability and build quality category.
Similarly, the American brand was rated as the second best car manufacturer, with the first being Porsche. It’s hard to find a Tesla owner who is dissatisfied with their choice of EV, but reliability was one of the few areas that drivers were less than impressed with.
Safety
In 2022, the Tesla Model Y received the maximum five-star safety rating from Euro NCAP’s crash safety tests, which isn’t surprising considering the company leads the industry in semi-autonomous driving systems. That also explains the 98% score in the Safety Assist category, exceeding even the Model 3’s formerly record-breaking score of 94%.
All versions come with lane-keeping assistance, blind spot monitoring, parking aids, traffic-sign recognition and a full suite of airbags. You can of course upgrade to enhanced autopilot, which adds semi-autonomous driving, parking and lane changing. While, the full self-driving capabilities allows the car to recognise, slow and even stop when approaching red lights, with semi-autonomous city driving coming soon, too.
Remember though, all of these systems are semi-autonomous, not fully autonomous. That means you still need to be paying attention and ready to take control. We found that while the auto steer function works well at detecting even the faintest road markings, it can still be thrown by patchy road surfaces and roads where there is no distinct white line to mark the edge of the lane.
