The Tesla Model Y Is Still Hard To Beat. But Is It Really 2025

I’m going to go ahead and say it: what happens online doesn’t always necessarily square up with what’s actually going on in real life. Yes, we all know that Elon Musk’s political opinions are controversial to say the least, with the world’s richest man often spouting racist right-wing conspiracy theories that have had tangible effects on the American people and our domestic policy.

Also, Tesla’s model line is stagnant in the U.S.—its mild updates here haven’t really moved the needle when it comes to the whole electric car thing. On one hand, you’re probably thinking, “Why the hell is the Model Y still an InsideEVs Breakthrough Awards Editor’s Choice?”

Because, despite all that controversy and its slipping sales globally, people are still buying the things in droves for good reason. Yes, it’s a fact that Tesla’s suffering from sinking sales—but it’s still leading the global EV market by a huge margin. No singular model has been able to touch the Model Y’s legacy, save for the Xiaomi YU7. However, that development is very recent, and only in China.

The Tesla Model Y is the car that has made the concept of EV ownership mainstream. No matter the folly of Elon Musk lately, the whole EV industry would not look the way it does without the Tesla Model Y. It held the record for being the best-selling car around the world for a reason; no other single EV nameplate has come close to this car’s dominance. The Model Y sells so damn well because it’s a hard car to beat.

But a hard car to beat doesn’t mean it’s our breakthrough EV of the year. I’ll explain why. 

(This story is part of the Breakthrough Awards, our series on 2025’s best EVs. Only one will be our Breakthrough EV of the Year. Read the other stories here.)

Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs

2026 Tesla Model Y Specs

As-Tested Price $41,630 (RWD Standard Range) to $59,130 (Performance)

Battery 82 kWh

Charge Type NACS

EV Range Up to 357 miles (RWD, Premium)

Output 295 hp (RWD)

Speed 0-60 MPH 5.4 seconds (RWD)

Seating Capacity 5

Why We Nominated The Tesla Model Y For Breakthrough EV Of The Year

It’s been a wild year. The whole jury staff here for the Breakthrough EV of the year admitted that there were fewer options available than we expected when it came to actual nominations. Geopolitical tensions, the elimination of the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credit benefits and new tariffs on once friendly nations have thrown the whole car world into a frenzy. 

Yet, the Tesla Model Y has been mostly insulated from the drama. At least, the tariff-related drama. Of course, the removal of the Inflation Reduction Act has resulted in higher pricing for new EV buyers of all types, but Musk and Tesla have said that neither party expects its absence to hurt the sales of its model line too much. 

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

For this year, Tesla finally updated its best-selling model with styling inspired by the Cybertruck and some quality-of-life improvements. The biggest upgrade is a new suspension design, which improved upon the old Model Y’s unacceptably choppy ride quality, while incremental under-the-skin improvements give a modest bump in range. Tesla itself says that it also put effort into making the entire car feel a little more premium, without compromising the price or what drew people to the Tesla Model Y in the first place. 

The updates do feel incremental. But the Model Y’s mere presence and Tesla’s promise of big, grandiose plans to effectively dominate the whole car industry with self-driving versions of this car (or the Cybercab) mean that it earned it a chance to compete. But it was the Model Y’s polished software and technology that made it a Breakthrough Awards Editor’s Choice, even if it couldn’t quite clinch our top award. 

What We Thought About The Tesla Model Y Platform

Begrudgingly, I think most of the team at InsideEVs liked the Model Y’s driving dynamics. Personally, I certainly did. I had a single motor, rear-wheel-drive Model Y Premium, putting it at a power disadvantage from the all-wheel-drive competitors in this test (everything but the Nissan Leaf). 

Photo by: Patrick George

Yet, the Model Y always felt like it was the swiftest on the road. The steering is lightning fast and very communicative for a car of any type, let alone a compact crossover with premium aspirations. At least to me, the ride was very much improved over the pre-facelift model; it still felt stiff and agile, but now the whole body structure no longer crashed, shook and rattled to death. All of us were in agreement that the Model Y is a sharp car to drive, although maybe not as sharp as the Lucid Gravity. 

Other parts of the car were less convincing, though. I genuinely liked most of Tesla’s software experience, but others on the team were less than convinced. Editor in chief Patrick George felt that it had a much steeper learning curve compared to other cars in the running, like the Nissan Leaf or Hyundai Ioniq 5. There are a lot of menus and options that are more akin to a tablet computer, rather than a car. The screen’s performance is admirable, but I do admit that it could be hard for some who aren’t as tech literate or don’t have experience with Tesla to understand how to use the car.

Although I liked most of the experience, using the screen for everything could get tiring. The swipe-to-shift feature was frustrating and not intuitive and didn’t always work with my fingers. Meanwhile, the secondary gear selector buttons mounted on the ceiling to override that feature felt unnatural and out of the way. In fact, most of the staff remained unconvinced of the car’s whole premium aspirations. I agree, the interior’s fit and finish is improved, but I’m not convinced that it’s able to successfully dupe customers into thinking it’s a premium experience anymore. 

Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs

Also, our impressions of FSD (full self-driving) are mixed. On it’s face, the tech is very impressive, able to mostly navigate itself from point to point without any human interaction. It can even park itself, either parallel on the street or perpendicular in a bay.

It’s mostly good, until it’s not. Both Mack and I agreed that the FSD will confidently put itself in bad situations, only to bail at a weirdly inopportune time, like say, in the middle of a freeway lane change or an unprotected left turn. Staff writer Suvrat Kothari also complained about the system. His experience with FSD was in New York City, where he had some very serious concerns about how it navigated the Big Apple. 

“It didn’t stop for FDNY [fire] trucks. It didn’t stop for the school zone signs or school bus signs,” he said in our final deliberation. All of us were impressed with the software itself, but none of us felt that we’d be willing to pay the $8,000 or roughly $100 a month to use it.

It’s a cool party trick, though. 

2025 Tesla Model Y: What We Didn’t Like

I think Suvrat said it best in our deliberations here, while speaking on the upgraded suspension of the Tesla Model Y: “As much as Tesla has advertised it as a breakthrough, or like a huge step change, I don’t think it’s that big of a change.”

And that’s kind of the crux of the issue here. Not counting the intense political and social baggage the Tesla brand now has due to Elon Musk’s relationship with the Trump administration and his involvement and creation of DOGE, the Model Y doesn’t feel like the great leap forward that Tesla insisted it would be. At its core, it’s a light facelift of an already strong model in the EV market. Out of all the cars in the competition, this is the one I liked the most. 

But I liked the old one too. And, the updated ride, slightly better range and improvement in interior quality aren’t really that big of a jump from the old one. In fact, I’d say that the upgraded new Model 3 is a more dramatic improvement compared to its previous model. Our breakthrough awards at their core, are about what models are really pushing the envelope and getting people behind the wheel of EVs.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

Verdict

Yes, the Model Y is as good as it’s ever been, but it’s not bringing anything new to the table here. FSD is impressive, but its value proposition is suspect. Even with the new Standard model, the pricing of the Model Y isn’t dramatically more accessible than any other EV. And most pertinently, other manufacturers are starting to figure out how to make a car just as good.

The Model Y is a good EV, possibly the best on the market right now. But the Tesla isn’t doing anything new, and still hasn’t solved its core issues. That’s why it’s not our 2026 Breakthrough EV of the year.

Contact the author: kevin.williams@insideevs.com