I have in the past often complained about spending time sitting at an electric car charging point waiting for the car I was driving to charge. But at the end of March while drivers of petrol and diesel cars were queuing for fuel, I simply drove to the Tesla’s Irish headquarters in Sandyford and charged the new Tesla model Y
When Tesla first came to Ireland in 2017 they made a really attractive offer to attract new customers and anybody who bought a Tesla in the early part of 2017 got free charging for life at a Tesla Supercharger location.
The good news for Tesla drivers is that a new Supercharger site is due to open very soon in Blanchardstown and that will be followed by two more in Rathfarnham and one near Dublin Airport. By the end of the year Tesla say they will have 18 Supercharger sites in The Republic at locations in: Letterkenny, Limerick, Longford, Mallow, Sligo and Wicklow.
That’s a long introduction to the updated version of the Tesla Y. In recent years Tesla has caught the public’s imagination and it was debateable whether Elon Musk’s connections to Donald Trump was a help or a hindrance. Elon has moved on from the White House and now it looks like Tesla are focussing on reducing the price of their cars.
As with all new revamps the second version of the Tesla Y is bigger, better and more comfortable to drive than the previous version. Tesla’s engineers paid a lot of attention to the suspension and tyres, which were Hankook in this instance. My test car came in Diamond Black, a colour the late Henry Ford would have liked, but I think there are probably better colours to showcase this new car.
The Tesla badge is dropped and there are very slight exterior changes. You would probably need to be wearing you Tesla Anorak to spot them all.
Inside there is plenty of room for five well-built adults. You still that minimalist, clean look and everything is controlled from the 16-inch screen that dominates the dash. From that screen you can perform a multitude of tasks like moving your seat, opening the boot, the frunk and the glove compartment. There are only two slave controls on the steering wheel. The seats are grey, but you get a white roof-lining, which certainly brightens the décor.
The boot is massive, officially 835 litres of space, and there is more discreet space underneath for the charge cables or you could store the cables in the Frunk. You can get even luggage space by leaving down the back seat and that can be done by pressing a button in the boot. You don’t get a key fob to start the car, only a Tesla card and the safest place to keep that card is attached to the lanyard provided by Tesla.
With a full charge you should get close to 500km and you can get from zero to 100km/h in just four seconds. I liked the car, but wasn’t made about the colour. Prices for the Rear-Wheel Drive start at €42,990, while the Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive model starts at €46,990.
SIMI figures showed that 3,851 new electric were registered in the month of March, which was 52.1 per cent higher than the 2,531 registrations in March 2025. I wonder will the events at the end of March where fuel distribution around the country was seriously disrupted, encourage more Irish people to switch to electric cars?