(bright upbeat music)
- Well the wait is over,
Tesla just launched the Model Y seven-seat option
and the standard-range edition.
So, is now the time to buy?
Let's have a look.
(upbeat music)
Initially, Tesla said they'd have room for seven adults,
and at the unveiling,
they actually had seven people get out of the car.
Now this was reminiscent of the Model X unveiling
of which they had seven people get out of the car
plus a bunch of gear.
Now on the Tesla website,
they've changed that language from seven adults
to just seven people,
which when looking at the third row, we can see why.
So if you've been waiting to replace your Range Rover
with the seven-seat Model Y,
I think you're gonna have to start looking elsewhere
for now.
And the odd thing about this is that,
while the third row really only looks big enough for kids,
those kids will actually have to be out of their car seats,
since it doesn't appear
that there is enough room for a car seat,
nor are there those connectors
that are at the bottom of the seat that you typically see.
Now although in this shot it does appear
to look like they have those anchors
on the back of the seat,
so we'll have to see it in person before we really know
whether or not you can put a kid back there in a car seat.
Regardless, it's tiny back there.
So I'd only really consider this being worth it
if you had kids that kind of perfect age and size
that will fit back there,
or you occasionally need to haul around kids
that age or size.
I wouldn't bank on this
as something that you would constantly leave up
and plan on putting people back there.
Now in contrast, in the Tesla Model X,
the third row does accept kids car seats,
and there is plenty of room for kids back there.
In my own use, we'd often put two car seats in the far back,
one car seat in the middle of our six-seat configuration,
which still left plenty of room for three full-size adults.
Now I don't really think you'd be able to do that here,
and it makes me wonder
why they didn't go with the rear-facing option instead.
Check out the shot of Jennie here
in the back of our Model Y.
You can see that the rear-facing option would be good,
there's plenty of room where her feet go
and still a decent amount of headroom.
Alright, so let's see how well you fit in here.
- Fit in the car?
- [Ben] Yeah, so take the bottom out there.
- Okay, this?
- [Ben] Yep. - Okay.
- [Ben] And then I want you to sit on that
and then put your feet down here.
- Why?
- [Ben] Like rear-facing seat.
- But they're not rear-facing seats.
- [Ben] I know.
Alright, so your head would be completely chopped off.
- Yeah. (laughs)
My head would definitely be chopped off.
- [Ben] But your feet, you got leg room there, right?
- Yeah, but like
there wouldn't be no room to do this.
- [Ben] Yeah, huh.
- So they're gonna sink you down, is what they're gonna do.
So you're gonna be like, seated here but flipped around.
- [Ben] Yeah. But see if you were sitting there,
if it were that low,
how comfortable does that feel?
- Do you wanna close the trunk?
You wanna close the trunk, don't you?
- [Ben] I'm gonna close the trunk on you, is that okay?
- Yeah.
- [Ben] All right, don't scream.
(Jennie mumbles)
- [Ben] Alright, so let's see.
- [Jennie] Oh, I got plenty of room.
Look how dirty my ceiling is.
It has like sap on it.
- [Ben] All right, how do you feel in there?
- I mean, I would not wanna face this way.
(Ben laughing)
But I feel good.
Like if I was facing this way,
are these gonna be lower?
- [Ben] These are gonna move forward.
I'm gonna show you the video here in a second
so you can see what it looks like.
- I feel fine.
- [Ben] You feel fine?
- Yeah, it's like the X.
If you were sitting back here,
you would hit your head on the ceiling,
But that's how the X is too,
if you sit in the back you--
But I feel good.
- [Ben] The trick is that
this middle seat is gonna scoot up about halfway.
- [Jennie] Okay. - [Ben] So,
you will have barely any room for your legs.
- Have you ever been in a Porsche?
- [Ben] Yes.
- There's like no room in the back in that.
- [Ben] You just want me
to show the picture of me driving the Porsche, don't you?
I think you like that picture.
- [Jennie] I'm talking about the little Porsche.
- [Ben] All right. Here open up the trunk again.
Or I guess, can you open it?
- From the inside? - [Ben] Yeah.
- Isn't there like the safety button?
- [Ben] I don't think--
All right.Here. Let me open up for you.
- [Jennie] There's so much space back here.
(Ben laughs)
- [Ben] All right.
- Yeah, they're gonna put it down.
It's gonna be like low like this.
- [Ben] Yeah.
But, but your feet are gonna go behind that.
- So this is how much space you're gonna have for the trunk?
- [Ben] Yep. You still have that.
- And then you're gonna have this much room for feet.
- [Ben] Yep.
- And remember, they're gonna like angle down
and these are reclined.
- [Ben] Right. So here, watch this video.
- Okay.
- [Ben] And tell me what you think.
- Oh, see, it does lean back a little bit.
To get in this third row,
simply squeeze your little body back into there.
(laughs)
Maneuver. Okay.
And then when you put it back...
Okay. So there's like...
I will tell you it might be a little claustrophobic feeling
but it's no different than the X.
The X is the same way.
Yeah. The X is the same way.
So I can't like open the back door
or anything when I'm in the back seat of the X
and the third row of the X, I can't get out.
- [Ben] Yeah.
- Other than that, we have that middle thing.
- [Ben] Yeah.
- The storage is gonna be this.
- [Ben] Still the same.
- No, it will be skinnier.
- [Ben] You think so?
- Yeah. It will be like that.
they're probably gonna make it so similar to the X
that your storage will just be smaller
because I think the X is longer.
But yeah.
I mean, you're gonna feel...
the problem is there's no...
the negative I see is that if you're claustrophobic
or get car sick, you're gonna hate sitting back here
because this window is so tiny and much like the X's
when you're back there, it's mostly, what do you call it?
It's like the panel of the car.
And so you're kind of like in a cocoon
like it's all paneling of the car.
And then that will be probably the only
but kids don't notice that
they don't get claustrophobic, like kids don't.
- [Ben] So one thing to note
is that currently it does not appear
that you can put car seats in this third row.
- That makes sense.
Oh, wait.
We could put a car seat at the other one.
- [Ben] In the model X, yeah.
Remember we put two car seats in the back.
- So it's probably gonna be like
kind of like these jump seats
were like between five and 10 year olds.
- [Ben] Yeah.
- Okay.
Which for a lot of people that's super helpful because--
- [Ben] And so would you rather have that one than this one?
- Well, I don't have those age of kids.
- [Ben] So no.
- But I'm still fine because for me, my use is,
again I think you either are holding more cargo
or you're holding more people.
Currently we are holding more cargo than people.
- [Ben] Okay. All right.
So let me call Tesla, tell them not to bring it.
(laughs)
- I do not need any more vehicles.
I like this one.
I don't need it modified or changed or adjusted.
I don't need new seats.
I enjoy my car, a lot.
- Now, another thing that Tesla announced
along with this new 17 option
is the model Y standard range version
which has a much cheaper price.
This is an exciting development
because back in July of 2020,
Elon actually said they weren't gonna sell this option
because the range would be unacceptably low under 250 miles.
And the odd thing about that statement
is that besides them changing course
is that the model 3 standard range was under 250 miles
for a long time, until they recently updated it
with a software change, which improved efficiency.
And now it's above the 250 mile range mark.
So officially as of today, January 11th, 2021
the model Y standard range rear wheel drive is on sale
for just over $40,000.
For that price, you'll get 243 miles of range,
a zero to 60 time of 5.3 seconds,
68 cubic feet of storage and seating for five adults.
Of course, if you want to increase that
to a seating for seven people
you'll have to pony up an additional $3,000
which brings your total to right around $44,000
before taxes and incentives.
So how does that actually stack up
to other electric crossovers?
Well, in the electric crossover segment
there are a few other choices which have comparable specs.
First, you have Chevy Bolt, which gets 259 miles of range
and has about 56 cubic feet of storage.
When the seats are folded down.
And this comes in right around $38,000
before taxes and incentives.
So a good comparable option that will save you a bit
but it doesn't offer that third row seat
nor things like autopilot.
Next, you have a couple of new entrance into this space
which are kind of really exciting
that there is competition here, notably, the VW ID.4.
Now this just went on sale in the US
and it comes with around 250 miles of range,
64 cubic feet of space
and a price around $40,000 before taxes and incentives.
Then lastly, you have the most exciting entrance
in my opinion,
and the winner of the 2020 electric crossover award,
the Mustang Mach-E.
The Mach-E comes in several varietals
and this case we're gonna look at the Mach-E Select.
This one has an EPS made a range of 230 miles,
almost 60 cubic feet of storage
and a price just under $43,000 before taxes and incentives
which would knock it down to just under $40,000
when it's all said and done.
When I drove the Mach-E, I was thoroughly impressed
with the quality of the car itself,
the tech inside and the handling.
So, it really is my favorite car in this category.
But if you want to go on road trips with it
you're gonna be rolling the dice a bit here
versus Tesla where you know the supercharger network
is just solid.
So Tesla is still my pick when it comes
to which car I would buy in this segment
but that could change in the future.
Now, if you want to see my review of the Ford Mach-E,
you can check out this video over here
and also subscribe if you haven't,
because it's almost been a year
since we bought our Tesla model Y
and we'll be posting a review of that soon.
So that's it for this one, guys.
Thanks for watching.
And always don't forget,
when you free the data, your mind will follow.
I'll see you back here in the next one.