Tesla Model Y vs Foton Tunland

What's the difference?

Tesla promised wholesale improvements to the Model Y, and this Juniper update delivers where it counts. But with increased, and sometimes cheaper, competition arriving every day, the pressure remains on Tesla to keep the Model Y ahead of the pack.

Okay, we admit our expectations weren't high.

But in some ways, the 2026 Foton Tunland is so much more than we could have hoped for, with great looks, big space, a well-presented cabin, tight steering and subdued engine noise. In fact, it even shows the established players a thing or two about equipment levels and value for money.

But the ride is too firm, the diesel powertrain needs more muscle and the rattly interior in the V7-C are all areas requiring attention.

Still, this is not a bad effort, and a name change from Tunland to Mars might have better reflected the sheer progress that Foton has made.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with accommodation and meals provided.

We’re not talking massive changes here – more a modernising of the Model Y offering that doesn’t really change the shape or dimensions. 

The most noticeable changes outside are the front and rear light bars, spanning the width of both the bonnet and the boot. They’re a nice touch, and seriously soften what many (including me) consider the worst angles of the Model Y. There are also new headlights, a refreshed front bumper and a new look for the alloy wheels.

Inside, it is the absolute definition of pared-back minimalism. In fact, some could argue it’s gone a little bit too far.

There are no physical buttons anywhere but on the steering wheel, and there's just the one stalk, which has the sole function of operating the indicators. Everything else - mirrors, windscreen wipers, headlights etc - are accessed either through the steering wheel, or through the central screen.

And that includes the gear selector, which is now a swipe-down-for-reverse, swipe-up-for-drive function on the central screen. You might love that, but I don't. I'm sure I'd get more used to it, but initially it did nothing but slow down how quickly I could get the car moving.

Helpfully, the central screen is big and very easy use, and logging into Spotify and Apple CarPlay does largely negate the missing phone mirroring – though if the function exists, I couldn't get it to read my incoming texts to me.

Our test car's cabin was black but highlighted with quality-feeling fabric panels in the doors and on the dash, which are then framed by a metallic-feeling mesh, helping the Model Y's cabin feel definitely elevated from the vehicles that came before it.

There are two ways of dealing with the elephant in the room here.

Buyers can ignore the problematic ethics of what looks like copying and taking the subsequent controversial front-end styling on face value.

Doing so reveals that the Ford F-150-esque V7 and Ram-like V9 do truly stand out. Beyond just the front-end, both are handsome and well-proportioned. Some may even prefer the Tunland to the originals. There is barely a jarring line to be found.

Good design sells and all this gives the Foton a real leg-up in the market. Plus, with one bold stroke of a pencil, any perceived visual associations with F-150 and Ram is shorthand that the Tunland is much larger than rival mid-sized utes.

This is all strategically brilliant, but is it fair? You decide.

The Foton’s extra size is no illusion. The V7 is 5617mm long (L), 2000mm wide (W), 1910mm high (H) and sits on a 3355mm wheelbase (WB). The V9’s wheel-arch cladding adds 90mm to its girth while the Supreme’s roof rails up height by 45mm.

In comparison, the Ford Ranger XLT’s corresponding L/W/H/WB dimensions are 5370mm/1918mm/1886mm/3270mm, while the regular F-150’s L/W/H/WB are 5884mm/2030mm/1995mm/3694mm respectively.

Crunching these numbers, the Tunland sits nearly midway between Ranger and F-150 in most major dimensions except wheelbase, where it’s about a quarter of the way longer.

This is a similar size strategy employed by the recently released LDV Terron 9 and MG U9 Chinese ute twins.

The extra interior space that endows, along with the clean, uncluttered and largely-intuitive dashboard layout that Foton has created, can only be good news for ute buyers seeking big on a budget. Especially as there’s not much that’s bargain-basement inside the cabin.

The new Model Y stretches 4792mm long, 1982mm wide and 1624mm tall, and the practicality perks of the outgoing model still shine strongly in this new version.

Climb into the backseat and you’ll find a seriously spacious area, and one that feels even bigger and lighter thanks to the completely flat floor and the glass roof.

Even sitting behind my own 175cm driving position, there was ample knee and headroom, and the addition of the 8.0-inch rear screen, which supports two headphone connections, is a clever touch. Gone are the mind-numbing days of staring out the window on long family road trips. Now, kids get access to YouTube, Netflix and a heap of games.

There are also two USB charge points, and a pull-down divider that separates the comfortable rear seats. The door pockets front and rear are sizeable, and cabin storage abounds, including a hugely deep storage bin that separates the front seats.

Open the boot, and remove the shade, and you'll find another fairly massive storage area, including a deep hidden area under the boot floor. But you won't find a spare tyre – instead Tesla offers a 24-hour call-out service for the life of the warranty, where someone will come and repair or replace your tyre, should you have an issue.

Tesla isn't good at detailing specifics about its vehicles, but says you can expect a total 2138 litres of storage space in the Model Y, presumably with the rear seats folded flat and measured to the ceiling.

Large and spacious, one of the other most impressive things about Foton’s new ute is how mature and sophisticated the interior’s very car-like design and layout are.

Yes, it looks like every other Chinese cabin that has come out recently – there is nothing unique to be found here – but it largely works really well. High points include quite accommodating front seats, an excellent driving position, heaps of storage, ample ventilation and, thankfully, physical buttons to access most of the main functions, including basic climate control, multimedia and vehicle settings.

Negative points include the need to prod the screen to get some of those features to actually operate, including the driving modes, and that led to distracted situations. Not good.

And the Mercedes instrumentation design is an outrageous rip-off. We’re talking near-facsimile here.

Plus, every V7-C we drove suffered from persistent squeaks from the door trim and/or rubbers, leading us to conclude that it has to do with this grade’s leaf spring suspension, as opposed to the quieter V9’s coil suspension. And as there was also some shaking of the passenger seat when empty, we suspect there is too much body flexing occurring here. Clearly more work needs to be carried out, especially as Foton says it's already done thousands of kilometres of Australian road tuning over the past year.

Moving to the roomy back seat, the backrest seems to be at an adequate angle, the cushion feels sufficiently padded, and most of the main amenities are present – cupholders, a centre armrest and air vent access.

There's a little bit of storage underneath the back seat, but there's nothing behind the folding backrest other than access to a jack, which is a little bit of a shame given the size of the cabin.

Still, frustrating touchscreen and wobbly noises apart, all in all, it's is a very well made, nicely presented and fairly high-quality effort from the Tunland.

Further back, we’ve crunched even more numbers.

The V7’s tub is 1577mm long, 1650mm wide and 530mm high, with 1240mm between the wheel arches, compared to the Ranger XLT’s 1464mm, 1520mm, 525mm and 1217mm – as well as the F-150’s 2005mm/1656mm/543mm/1285mm – respectively.

While the Tunland subsequently sits nearly midway between medium and full-sized utes generally, its tub’s dimensions are closer to the former. Still, the Foton is still usefully larger for bigger loads, and is also strong for payload (995kg to 1115kg) and GVM (3305kg to 3335kg) ratings, as well as off-road clearances.

Accessories specialists Ironman will supply items like canopies, towbars and bullbar options.

However, do note that the (assisted) tailgate in the V7-C is not lockable at this stage. A fix is coming soon, apparently.

Lastly, only the dual-cab body is likely for the foreseeable future, though other styles including cab-chassis are offered elsewhere.

So, how cheap is the box-fresh and (very) mild-hybrid Tunland range, then? Spanning a $10,000 range and sharing the same 2.0-litre diesel powertrain, the action kicks off from $39,990 (all prices are before on-road costs) for the V7-C 4x2.

Now, the C in V7-C stands for Core, but it’s hardly been stripped-down to one.

Available in 4x2 or 4x4 guise from $42,990 before ORC, the V7-C includes a 14.6-inch touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay, a 360-degree camera with transparent-road-down-below views, a dash cam, front/rear parking sensors and a decent stack of advanced driver-assist systems – which will be covered in more detail in the safety section.

Four-wheel drive adds a rear differential lock, 2H/4Auto/4H/4L high-and-low ratio gearing, various off-road driving modes and all-terrain tyres.

Plus, as with all Tunlands, braked towing capacity is 3.5 tonnes, but as the workhorse choice aimed mostly at fleet buyers, only the V7-C’s payload tops one tonne (at up to 1115kg compared to the V9’s 995kg), due to its heavy-duty leaf-spring rear suspension.

Do note, though, that there’s no lockable tailgate for now, or digital radio.

Stepping up to the V9-L (for Luxury) 4x4 from $45,990 switches from a Ford F150-style face to a Ram 1500-esque one, and also gains wheel-arch cladding, side steps, a sports bar, vehicle-to-load power socket, heated and powered front seats, dual-zone climate control, heated/folding mirrors, extra USB ports, extra speakers, a wireless charger and coil-sprung rear suspension instead of the V7-C’s leaf-spring set-up.

Lastly, the flagship V9-S (for Supreme) 4x4 from $49,990 scores a front diff lock, roof rails, panoramic sunroof, vented front seats, heated outboard rear seats, rear privacy glass and more.

The Foton’s value seems rock-solid, with ultra-sharp pricing for a bottom-end ute. Especially for its circa-30 per-cent up-size compared to what is palpably smaller competition.

Bargain-hunting size queens, your ride is ready.

Again, more cloak and dagger from Tesla here, but most reporting suggests a 75kWh battery is housed beneath the new Model Y.

We do know that our rear-drive Model Y will deliver a claimed 466km driving range on the WLTP cycle.

Charging is capped at a reported 220kW, with the brand suggesting 238km in driving range can be added in 15 minutes when using a 175kW Supercharger. Home AC charging is capped at 11kW.

The Tunland’s official combined fuel-consumption average is 8.0 litres per 100km, for a carbon-dioxide emissions rating of 211 grams per kilometre.

Lending a hand here is auto start/stop and battery regenerative energy recovery tech.

So much for the theory. The expected best-selling V7-C 4x4 we drove averaged 10.3L/100km during our drive day. And that's not bad, considering that it had four people and plenty of luggage on board for part of its journey.

Reviewing a Tesla Model Y at the moment is no mean feat. The company's very public figurehead is fighting for a front-row grid position in the battle for world's most unlikeable human at the moment.

But anyway, journalist hat on, personal views aside, Tesla has done a good job with the new Model Y. I actually didn't much like the outgoing model – the ride was too harsh, the steering too darty and the cabin too austere – but Tesla has comprehensively overhauled each of those drawbacks to create a car that is genuinely much better than it has ever been before.

Let's start with the cabin. It's still austere, but the quality feels higher and more premium, and while I'll die on a hill of the screen-controlled drive selector being a bad idea, it is otherwise now a nice place to spend time. The screen and the software powering it largely replace the perks of Apple CarPlay, and the addition of the rear screen is a very good one, too.

But the biggest improvements are in the way the Model Y drives. It's far more compliant on Sydney roads, while the steering sensitivity has been dialled back so it doesn't feel as though you're constantly making corrections.

I also like the power delivery in the RWD. It's not lightning fast, but the grunt is constant and feels really instantaneous and usable.

It's no sports car, though. Our test car took in some of the windiest roads in greater Sydney and beyond, and while the body roll and composure feels on point, the Model Y does struggle with really sharp cornering. The aggressive traction control was a constant passenger on the really challenging stuff.

Overall, the improvements are good, and very noticeable.

Besides the divisive styling, the main difference between the V7 and the V9 is the suspension, and this informs the driving experience somewhat, as both share the same powertrain.

Now, the 2.0-litre four-pot turbo-diesel is exceptionally smooth and well- insulated from inside, while the eight-speed ZF transmission is really slick and responsive.

But this is not a particularly powerful unit. There’s adequate performance, as it does pick up speed fairly quickly, and it does maintain sufficient acceleration for overtaking as long as the stretch of road is long enough, but joining fast traffic or going up hills can be a struggle if you’re in a rush. It's not the worst in class, but not best in class by a long shot.

Probably the biggest surprise, though, is the Tunland’s steering, as it's really well-weighted and progressive, allowing the keen driver to really take advantage of the well-sorted chassis tune’s handling and grip.

Yet the steering is light enough around town, aided by a light driving mode, for easy parking.

The flip side, though, is that the ride can be choppy.

The V7 is the worse of the two, because its leaf sprung rear suspension set-up makes it feel a little bit too firm and bouncy over certain roads, while the V9’s coil-sprung alternative does a noticeably better job of it.

That said, the Tunland is still better than some Chinese utes. But for ride comfort and refinement, the class leaders like Ranger can rest easy.

Finally, the ADAS safety tech has been worked over for Australia, and it's nowhere near as intrusive as it is in a lot of other vehicles. So that's another plus point for the Foton.

That's the on-road driving impressions.

Unsurprisingly, the V7’s ride comfort deteriorated even more off the beaten track, with a jittery patter and some minor body flex causing the door rubbers to squeak. That wasn’t detected in the V9, which clearly handled the rough stuff better.

Overall, though, the Tunland did a good job over a not-too-demanding 4x4 course, aided by decent clearances and the lockable rear (plus V9’s front) differentials, as well as the settled and measured steering.

Neither ANCAP nor Euro NCAP results are available for the Foton Tunland.

But both the V7 and V9 models tick many, if not all, of the required boxes with Australian-tuned advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) like autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, lane centring control, traffic sign recognition, blind spot monitoring, door open warning, rear cross-traffic alert, trailer stability assist and adaptive cruise control.

No data is available pertaining to the operating speeds of the AEB systems.

There are also eight airbags fitted, including a front-centre airbag, as well as child seat anchor points for the rear seat, including two ISOFIX-compliant restraints.

Underwhelming, I'm afraid. A four-year/80,000km warranty might be the worst offered by any mainstream brand in the country. For the record, five-year/unlimited km is now the minimum standard, with many brands far exceeding that.

Servicing intervals are a bit scattered, with the brand instead listing when things need to be done, rather than a traditional schedule.

Though not quite the 10 years offered by Mitsubishi, Nissan and MG, Foton is swinging big with a seven-year unlimited-kilometre warranty including with roadside assistance and seven years of capped-priced servicing.

Intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km, while you can expect to pay around $650 annually (averaged out over seven years) or nearly $4500 over that period of time.

There are currently 22 dealers around Australia, although that will grow over the next couple of months with independent and broader dealer coverage from the Inchcape group that imports Foton vehicles.

Vehicles are serviced in-house at these dealerships.