Tesla Cover Up: Model Y Performance Brakes Downgraded

California Tesla tuners ZEVcentric went to Twitter recently to claim that Tesla is no longer offering “upgraded” brakes on its Model Y Performance versions. Instead, the company is fitting its latest Performance Y vehicles with the same rear brakes as the Long Range versions … except, on the Performance, they’re hidden behind a bright red piece of plastic. (The front brakes are reportedly still Brembo higher-performance brakes.)

The purpose of that plastic cover? It can only be to trick onlookers into believing that the cars are still packing the high-powered Brembo brake bits that the Performance 3 and Y cars have been known to include.

“It’s a smaller caliper and a smaller rotor which is the same on [the Long Range]. So now you are just paying for the same brakes, just red,” ZEVcentric wrote on Twitter. Tesla apparently made the change last year, and is “hiding” that change behind the same kind of “fake” brake calipers you see advertised on Wish.com.

If you think that’s an unfair exaggeration, watch the shop’s video.

As we took delivery of our 2023 Model Y last month. At some point Tesla decided to put caliper covers on the Performance Y. What does that mean? It's a smaller caliper and a smaller rotor which is the same on LR. So now you are just paying for the same brakes just red. pic.twitter.com/FXinpySrTu

— ZEVcentric (@ZEVcentric) January 8, 2023

In the brand’s defense, Tesla claims the changeover from Brembo calipers to these smaller Mando pieces won’t negatively impact performance, and seems to fully acknowledge that the covers are an aesthetic addition. In fairness, that’s probably true, since the kind of drivers who will actually be able to tell the difference between the Brembos and — well, just about anything else — are probably few and far between.

And, despite what that last trip to K1 Speed may have you believe, unless your name is Blake Fuller or you’re planning a trip up Pike’s Peak sometime soon, you’re probably not one of them … neither am I, though, so I guess we can be slow and miserable together.

That sounds nice, doesn’t it?

While you ponder that one, watch the videos in ZEVcentric’s tweet, above, then let us know what you think about Tesla’s Performance “downgrade” in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Source | Images: ZEVcentric.