EV Confessions: A Model Y Premium RWD in the Philippines

A US Tesla referral code works on a Philippine order. I did not know that until Joy told me she used mine and got about ₱13,000 knocked off her Model Y. Nobody at Tesla advertises this. She just tried it, and it went through.

Joy is Abby’s cousin, so this one was easy to set up. I was back in the Philippines and she had taken delivery of a white Model Y Premium RWD about two months earlier. Her son Noah was with us in the back seat, and he turned out to be the best part of the interview. This is the second EV Confessions I have shot over there, after Doc Dennis Alejandro’s Model Y in Laguna.

What You Actually Get for the Money

Hers is the Premium RWD, white with the black interior, riding on 255/45R19 Hankooks. Standard is not offered there, so Premium is where the range starts.

The referral discount is the part worth repeating, because it is money anyone can save. She used my code on a Philippine order and roughly ₱13,000 came off. She is the one who found that out, so if you are ordering over there, use Joy’s referral link and let her get the credit. If you would rather use mine, that one is here.

For anyone pricing this out: she landed at ₱2,598,000, and Doc Dennis paid ₱2,800,000 for his. That gap makes sense once you line the two up. His is the dual motor Long Range on 20-inch wheels with Michelins, hers is the single motor Premium RWD on the 19s. Two real numbers from the same country, which is more than you will find on most spec sites.

She Went to BYD First

BYD is everywhere in the Philippines, and it was her first stop about three months before the Tesla.

It did not go well. Her words were that the agent could not answer her questions, which is a problem when the agent is the one selling the car. Then came the part that killed it: ₱5,000 down to reserve, and she would be 16th in line. Fifteen people ahead of her, for a car she still had unanswered questions about.

So she went to the Tesla site, booked a test drive, and they walked her through the whole car. That is where she bought.

That is twice now in two Philippine EV Confessions that the buying experience decided it, not the spec sheet. Doc Dennis said the same about no haggling and no dealer add-ons. Here it was simpler. One dealership answered questions and one did not.

One difference worth noting: over there the advisor rides along on the test drive and explains everything. When my son and I test drove a Model 3 Performance back in 2019, they handed me the key card and told me to be back in 30 minutes. No pressure either way, just a different approach.

Four Gas Cars, Then a Model Y

This is their first EV, and it landed in a driveway that already had a lot going on.

They started with a Honda Civic hatchback, which is gone now. Then an Isuzu Alterra, then the Subaru Forester XT, a Ford pickup, and a Nissan NV350 Urvan. Four cars currently, plus her husband’s motorcycles.

When I asked for the one thing she likes most, she did not say acceleration or the screen. She said gasoline. Fuel and diesel in the Philippines are brutal right now, and the Model Y took that line item off the board. They have solar at home and a wall connector, so the car fills up overnight off their own roof.

The second thing she said was the quiet. That one comes up in almost every one of these.

Autosteer Is Still There, and Noah Found Out the Hard Way

Here is the part North American owners will not expect. Autosteer still exists on Philippine cars. Back in January, Tesla pulled it out of standard Autopilot on new Model 3 and Model Y orders in North America, so a new car here ships with Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and nothing else unless you subscribe to FSD. Over there, both are still on the car.

Noah has his own driver profile, and his profile has Autosteer turned on. Joy’s does not.

He figured it out while taking Alicia home from school, and by his own account it was great. He could drink his water. His mom was still nervous. Then they had an incident on the road. There was a car up ahead, Joy panicked first, and Noah panicked too because he had forgotten he was in Autosteer. He reached for the brake, she told him to turn left, so he moved over. Then she told him to get back. When he did, a truck was a good few meters in front of them. She yelled at him for slowing down and asked why he had not just stayed in the other lane. He moved back anyway, in his words, because he knew it was futile.

Her complaint afterward was not that he used it. It was that he did not tell her he was using it. “If you had told me already that you were on autopilot, I guess I calmed down a bit.”

So I showed them the three ways out of Autosteer: press the brake, press the button, or jerk the wheel hard enough to kick it off. She had never seen the screen, because she was watching the road while he drove.

Noah’s one dislike is one-pedal driving, which he cannot get used to because his brain is wired for a gas car. I love that feature. He does not. That argument is not unique to the Philippines.

The Car Booked Three Weddings

Joy is an event planner. She runs CJV Events Coordination, does grazing tables, and years ago she had a vintage bridal car that a client booked.

She bought the Model Y for commuting. That was the whole plan, driving Alicia around and getting to Lipa without paying for diesel. Then she posted on Facebook that they got their first EV, and one of her former brides commented that it would make a good bridal car.

Three bookings so far. From one comment.

The bridal side runs under its own name, Wheels to Wed 2.0, and the 2.0 is doing real work in that title. The vintage car years back was 1.0. So the Model Y did not start a business for her, it restarted one that had been sitting idle for the better part of a decade.

I close every EV Confessions with the same hypothetical: unlimited budget, any car, does not have to be electric. Hers was another Model Y in a different color, since this one is spoken for on weekends now. Quicksilver, which she saw on her brother Herbert’s car over in Australia. Asked what color she would take if she could have anything, she said black, and I pointed her at diamond black, the one with the flake in it that shows every speck of dust.

That is a daydream and she framed it that way herself. Her words were if only I had extra money. What is actually on the table is a wrap, around ₱150,000, which is not far off what one costs here.

The only thing she would change on the car is the glass. It gets hot, so a sunroof shade was arriving the week after we filmed, ₱13,500 and manual, not motorized. I do reviews and get sent this stuff constantly. I should have brought her one.

The Part That Actually Matters

Her biggest reason for buying was simply that it is cheaper to run, and that set me off on something I end up saying a lot. EV owners spend a strange amount of time defending the purchase. Somebody always says it is expensive.

None of us were born owning EVs. We drove gas, they drove diesel, and we know what that cost because we have the receipts. I am not telling anyone to go buy one. But for her use case, driving her kids around and now running a business out of the car, the math works and she is happier.

Watch the full episode below. Noah’s Autopilot story lands better in his own voice than it does in mine.

A new Model Y in the Philippines still comes with Autosteer. A new one here does not. Does that bother you as much as it bothers me? Let me know what you think in the comments.