Tested: 2026 Tesla Model Y Performance Takes the Edge Off
06/17/26 UPDATE: This review has been updated with instrumented test results.
When a colleague asks Lars Moravy, Tesla's vice president of vehicle engineering, about the new 81-kWh battery in the 2026 Tesla Model Y Performance, the lights flicker. He speeds off into a rant. "The updated cell has new tabs and cathodes, and the jelly roll is constructed of a lithium-uranium paste that sits in a pool of Mercon V and is cooled by Dex-Cool—not the yellow kind, but the orange. In all, it's the same size and mass with more energy." Moravy is a human data center. We're certain he needs 1.4 gigawatt-hours of mental capacity just to retain this amount of information.