Tesla Model Y 2022 Long-Term Review

I’ll be living with the 2022 Tesla Model Y. But unlike most of the other cars that grace my driveway over a year, this one cost me money – about $74,000, to be precise.

I’ve bought the 2022 Tesla Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive to experience as a family car, not only learning about the latest battery-electric SUV but also the Tesla way of motoring. It’s no secret Tesla does things differently…

That point of difference starts with how you buy and collect the car.

I managed to purchase the Model Y without ever setting foot inside a Tesla outlet or physically sign a piece of paper.

Instead, everything was done online, from placing the initial order and filling out the required documentation to arranging payment and, eventually, taking delivery.

It helped that I’d already spent extended time in a couple of Model Ys. I’d certainly want to experience the car before shelling out for it.

As for the car we’ll be living with, it’s a 2022 Tesla Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive in Pearl White Multi-Coat, now selling for $72,300 plus on-road costs.

No options, no boxes ticked. It’s the cheapest way into a Model Y. I ordered before the $3400 price rise that occurred a week after the car went on sale.

Mine is one of the first customer Model Ys in the country. It was built on June 29, 2022, so took a little over five weeks to make it into my hands.

I’ll be monitoring electricity usage and what it’s like to live with, right down to its firm suspension. I’ll also be running with the ups and downs of the regular software updates, some of which can introduce new features while others tweak functionality.

But my life in a 2022 Tesla Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive started at the US car-maker’s delivery centre in Sydney.

Forget about a flashy dealership with my new set of wheels draped in a cover (or a giant bow on the bonnet).

Where you collect Teslas is very industrial. It’s a warehouse with a modest foyer complete with some couches and a desk to check you in.

Once you’ve showed your ID and started the delivery process on your phone (again, no old-school pen and paper here!) it’s straight into the guts of the warehouse, where there are dozens of Tesla Model 3 and Model Y EVs, most of them in white (it seems, like me, most buyers would prefer to save at least $1500 rather than get something more vibrant).

Many are yet to be fitted with number plates or have their plastic wheel covers clipped on. Some, including mine, are still charging.

Having been warned by text message a few days before that my car would only have a 50 per cent charge – part of the instructional videos to prep you for the “express pick-up” – it was refreshing to see the state of charge bang on 100 per cent.

There may have been some luck there because the bloke collecting his car alongside me was peeved about only having 40 per cent state of charge. He was left to sort out some more electrons on his own, quickly commandeering my charger once I’d unplugged.

The whole handover process took maybe five or six minutes. Someone shows you to your car, hands you a cardboard folder with the rego papers and two plastic cards (no keys here!) and confirms the VIN to make sure you’re about to land your rear-end in the correct car.

The polite Tesla bloke helped log my Tesla ID to the car and set up my phone to act as a key before pointing me towards the door.

A quick check of the odo showed my 2022 Tesla Model Y had travelled 11km during its trip from China to Australia.

The car was estimating something like 440km from its topped-up battery which, no surprise, is short of the 455km of WLTP range claimed on the Tesla website.

Within the first kilometre I experienced the full 340Nm of torque from the single rear motor. No running engines in with an EV!

The 15-inch screen that is the nerve centre of the car – instrument cluster and all – warned the Autopilot driver assist system was calibrating. It’s normal for a new Tesla, but means you can’t use cruise control during that time (it can take 30-40km to finish the calibration).

The other half of the screen was struggling to bring up the Spotify account login. Instead, there was a black spinning wheel – for the entire 40-minute trip home.

But, hey, there’s more to a car (even a Tesla!) than tech.

At home I gave my new 2022 Tesla Model Y a coat of wax for added gloss and protection. It also gave me a chance to check every part of the car, inconsistencies and all.

Tesla quality has long been a sore point, but my made-in-China Y is mostly good.

Some of the panel gaps are wider than you’d find on a Lexus (or any Japanese car, for that matter) and there’s a piece of door trim that doesn’t line up with its equal on the main body of the car.

Teslaphiles might call me picky, but while the quality is markedly better than it once was – I’d now classify it as acceptable – there’s still room for improvement.

There are also some sharp black edges around some of the parking sensors. It’s not the first Tesla to suggest the company could refine how it paints and/or clips the sensors into the bumpers.

But my immediate goal was to sort out the tech. That included getting rid of the Chinese characters on the trip computer (it’s weird they’re not converted to English, like everything else on the touch-screen) and renaming them using characters I recognised.

Once my wife was logged into the car and set up with her phone as a key I got back to the Spotify spinning wheel.

I tried a reset of the centre screen (holding both steering wheel buttons down for a few seconds) but there was no change.

It was then I tried Tesla Support. A couple of menu selections and a minute or two of waiting and I was speaking to a human – at which point the Spotify screen decided to play ball…

The lady confirmed what I already knew: that there are sometimes issues logging into Spotify. But after a few hours I could finally play tunes.

So begins my time in a 2022 Tesla Model Y, music and all.

I’ll be providing updates as the Model Y settles into Hagon family life, but for full details on Tesla’s newest EV see our comprehensive launch review here, our video review and our comparison test with the acclaimed Kia EV6.

See the links below for more coverage too, and watch this space as we see just how well the Tesla Model Y stacks up on Australian soil, over the long term.

How much does the 2022 Tesla Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive cost?
Price: $72,300 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now (delivery February to May 2023 at time of writing)
Powertrain: Single permanent magnet synchronous motor
Output: 194kW/340Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 60kWh lithium-iron phosphate
Range: 455km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 14.6kWh/100km (ADR)
Safety rating: Not tested