Tesla updates made-in-China Model Y with slightly longer range, but significantly slower acceleration

Tesla has updated the base version of its made-in-China Model Y – giving it a little more range, but also making it significantly slower to accelerate.

Earlier this year, Tesla briefly launched a standard range version of the Model Y with a smaller battery pack, but CEO Elon Musk ended up canceling it, saying that the range was to his satisfaction.

However, the automaker ended up keeping a standard range version of the electric SUV in China, where it is one of the most popular configurations.

Today, in an update to its online configurator, Tesla updated that base version of the Model Y made at Gigafactory Shanghai.

Here’s the updated Model Y online configurator for the Chinese market:

With the update, the range went up from 525 km to 545 km (339 miles) on a single charge.

That’s based on the CLTC Chinese standard, which is notoriously not very representative of the real-world range.

For example, this “standard range” version would technically get a longer range than Tesla’s Model Y Long Range does in the US (318 miles) based on the EPA standard.

Therefore, 20 additional kilometers based on this generous standard is not a massive change.

The bigger update is actually to the 0-60 mph acceleration of the base Model Y, which went from 5.6 seconds to 6.9 seconds.

That’s almost a full second and a half slower to accelerate, which should be very noticeable when driving the new version.

With the update, Tesla has also dropped the name “Standard Range” for the version of the Model Y.

Like with the Model 3 in the US, it now refers to the base version simply as the rear-wheel-drive Model Y.

As usual, Tesla hasn’t released any information regarding what changes resulted in these new specs.

We do know that Tesla is using LFP batteries in the standard range versions of its vehicles, and the automaker has been looking to diversify supply with more manufacturers.