Tesla sneakily downgrades performance brakes, puts cover to hide it

Tesla has sneakily downgraded its performance breaks on the Model Y Performance and even put a cover to hide the change in a deceptive move.

When going from a Model Y Long Range to Model Y Performance, the biggest difference is arguably the performance brakes.

You also get faster acceleration and higher top speed, but those are basically software unlocked since the powertrain in the vehicles is virtually the same.

There are also bigger wheels, but that’s a positive or negative, depending on how you look at it.

The bigger Brembo brakes are arguably the most significant upgrade for the money to move up to the top-performance version.

However, we now learn that Tesla has downgraded the brakes and has done it in a very sneaky and deceiving way.

ZEV Centric, a company building accessories for Tesla vehicles, spotted and exposed the change.

The company was working on some customers’ Model Ys and some of their own Model Y vehicles and discovered the downgrade:

We already have a 2020 MYLR and a 2022 MYP that belong to other members of the company and now have added a company owned 2023 MYP to further develop. We brought all 3 into the office to do some comparisons and a quick tear down. It was at this time that we opted to snap some photos, shoot some video, take some measurements, and reveal what is hiding behind the rear covers. Little did we know that not many people were aware of this downgrade and Tesla still markets it as a performance upgrade on their website.

The Performance upgrade on the Model Y brings a rear Brembo caliper and a 2mm thicker rotor with additional venting features.

The company spotted this around September when Tesla started to replace that Brembo caliper (right) with a new Mando brake (left):

The company now says that the rotor is 2mm thinner with the downgrade.

Here’s also a comparison of the brake pads on both calipers, which clearly shows the Brembo to be more significant in size:

ZEV Centric, who are brake experts, believes this is a significant downgrade and believes Tesla should provide them with the Brembo brakes since the change was not indicated on Tesla’s Model Y configurator.

Tesla has been known to implement cost-cutting efforts by removing features over the last few years, such as removing passenger lumbar support controls and ultrasonic sensors.