Test – Tesla Model Y Performance: The charging and driving times of our super test

The Tesla Model Y Performance has panicked our ranking in terms of autonomy. It remains to analyze its performance in terms of charging.

As a kind of Tesla Model 3 in size XXL, the Model Y takes up the recipe for success of the sedan. Impressive efficiency, overwhelming performance and interesting technologies are its trademarks. Riding on board is now only a formality and clears up prejudices against electric cars in one fell swoop on 21-inch rims. We expected nothing less from this SUV.

During long motorway journeys, it recorded an average consumption of 21.5 kWh/100 in our hands, or 348 km of autonomy in total. With less wind and less hectic air conditioning, you can definitely consider pawing another twenty kilometers. But what is it like when you travel? Answer with this second part dedicated to the super test of this SUV.

Tesla Model Y Performance charging curve: a useful charge in 32 minutes

According to many estimates, the Tesla Model Y Performance is equipped with a battery with a net capacity of 75 kWh. It’s no longer a secret. Connected to sufficiently stable quick clamps, it can increase DC power up to 250 kW. No other electric SUV charges as strongly. Not even the crossovers (are they SUVs, by the way?) from the Korean concern Hyundai-Kia, like the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

But unlike the competition, the charging curve never plateaus. In addition, the Model Y never reached the maximum power promised in the brochure in this test and briefly drew a maximum of 222 kW at 15% load. The temperature of 37°C that day would have taken its toll on the preconditioned battery? This is one of the few explanations given that the V3 superchargers are able to deliver all of their power regardless of the number of cars connected to the station.

Nonetheless, the curve is what it is and drops dramatically beyond this observed peak. And the values ​​are low: at 50% the meter shows 107 kW, while at 80% there is only 47 kW left! This is 81.2% down from the announced high, or 78.8% down from the high seen on the day. For comparison: The Hyundai Ioniq 5 drew 114 kW at 80% load. Of course, even if the battery is not the same, the curve recorded in our exclusive test of the Tesla Model S Long Autonomy showed a more satisfying shape.

In the end, the exercise required the usual 10-80% 32 minutes of standing time on the supercharger. The powers aren’t outstanding, but refueling is within the hand of the average for the electric chrono market. It then takes another 12 minutes to reach 90%, while charging to 100% takes another 20 minutes. In the end we clocked 65 minutes to go from 10 to 100%.

But it was no surprise when, initially without much conviction, we carried out another full charge on an Efacec Allego terminal with a maximum power of 160 kW. The context is – almost – the same: a car that has already driven many kilometers before plugging in, an outside temperature of 34 °C and no battery preconditioning has been activated. Here, too, the maximum power (promised by the terminal) was not reached and increased to a maximum of 134 kW at 40% load. After this long plateau, the curve began to drop, with slightly higher values ​​than the last generation Supercharger. Too bad, that gave 10-80% in 34 minutes! You know the line: “Without mastering the force there is nothing”. Of course, the perfect model/compressor symbiosis does not always work

Autonomy regained: 233 km in 30 minutes

But more than the total charging time, what matters most when roaming is the autonomy recovered per minute. And with its efficiency and total range of 348 km, the Tesla Model Y Performance puts the church back in the middle of the village. So, taking this data into account, it can travel almost 233 km in 30 minutes of charging. It sits just below the Ioniq 5, which doesn’t play in the same spot in terms of loading speed.

How Much Do Tesla Model Y Performance Fees Cost?

The price of superchargers is constantly increasing. The national average is now €0.50/kWh. This is the price list applicable to Avallon and Dardilly stations, the stages of our 500km reference route.

With a 10-80% charge, Model Y recovers 54 kWh according to the onboard meter. Or almost 60 kWh on average according to the counters of all other charging stations. With a supercharger, the typical top-up therefore corresponds to a total of €27. Or €11.06/100 km depending on autonomy on this long journey.

We have not made the necessary top-ups for this trip (see below). However, if we had complied with the necessary tariffs, we would have paid €28. As usual, the price of refueling on arrival to find the starting SoC depends on the charging point. The final cost price could then be between €11.54/100 km (with Supercharger) and €7.70/100 km (charging at home).

Onboard route planner: Excessive caution

For this super test, we could only complete a 500 km drive in the direction of Paris-Lyon. We typically use this for charging trials, leaving enough time to focus on route planning and creating the quickest possible roadmap on the way back. From there we barely changed our stage plan so we could hook up to one of the superchargers at under 10% to create a corner.

Departing from Porte d’Orléans in Paris with 96% battery, the onboard planner was particularly careful with his estimates. According to him, our first stop should be the supercharger in Auxerre, where we passed with 50% charge left. Useless, especially since you cannot fully exploit the charging capacities of the Model Y with these V2 connections.

Finally, the stop at the Avallon station was the most consistent, where we still had 33% battery. An 80% charge allows you to reach Dardilly station in one go, where we achieved our benchmark of 10-100%. Note that the stage here could have been much shorter as a 35% state of charge would have been enough to pass the 500km mark with 20% charge remaining.

In retrospect, we could have reached the Beaune Nord station with a SoC between 5 and 10% load. Almost 35 minutes later we could have resumed the road to our destination. So with this itinerary we would have saved… 4 minutes charging in total. It doesn’t matter. This is of course just a theory, but quite close to reality as it is based on our constant measurements throughout the trip.

In the end, according to this chart, by keeping only the necessary loading times, we added 39 minutes of standing still to the 4:18 hours of driving that day. That’s a total of 4 hours 57 minutes to cover the 500 reference kilometers. It’s worth adding here, however, the minutes wasted reaching the off-highway superchargers with an average package of 8 minutes, compared to 4 minutes typically at rest area stations. This brings the journey to a total of 5:13 hours.

The Tesla Planner is very intuitive to use. If you’re in doubt about his estimates, it’s pretty easy to pick another Supercharger and find out the charge rate upon arrival. In contrast, the ABRP and Chargemap planners rely on slightly higher consumption than our reality, but also to much faster loading times with 23 minutes and 18 minutes loading time in two times. ABRP selects the Avallon and Tournus superchargers (8 and 15 minute stops), while Chargemap provides the Avallon superchargers and Beaune Electra station (3 and 15 minute stops). In short, both do not correspond to Tesla’s on-board planner, which, however, has to be contradicted from time to time.