Try Y again

WHAT CAR COMPARISONS

Try Y again

If at first you don’t succeed in making a flawless electric SUV, you can always give it a revamp. Can the latest Tesla Model Y beat rivals from Kia and Skoda, though?

Photography: John Bradshaw

KIA EV6

AWD GT-Line S

List price £57,185 Target Price £54,224

The EV6 makes a lot of sense in its cheaper forms, but can this range-topping four-wheel-drive version justify its high price by beating its rivals here?

NEW

SKODA ENYAQ 85x SportLine

List price £48,760 Target Price £46,716

Skoda aims to give its practical, well-priced contender renewed appeal with fresh looks and faster charging capability

NEW

TESLA MODEL Y Long Range AWD

List price £51,990 Target Price £51,990

The original Model Y impressed with its great efficiency and practicality, but it also had its shortcomings. This heavy update promises to rectify them

WILL NIGHTINGALE

will.nightingale@haymarket.com

SOME OF YOU will doubtless question the inclusion of one of the cars in this test. We’ve had emails, YouTube comments and even phone calls encouraging us either not to review Teslas at all, or to do so in a negative way.

And we understand the strength of feeling. In fact, if you aren’t happy with the way a company (or its boss) is conducting itself, we’d remind you that you can always vote with your wallet and not buy its cars. It’s the most powerful tool you have to encourage a brand to change its ways.

But we’re a car buyer’s guide, and to refuse to review a new version of the world’s best-selling car of 2024 would be, frankly, bizarre. And if we took such a moral standpoint with Tesla, should we also decline to review Chinese cars over alleged links to human rights abuses?

Nope – we don’t see it as our role to act as judge and jury on these matters. So, we’ll continue to review all cars that sell in reasonable numbers and, as always, we’ll do so in a fair and even-handed manner to give you all the objective information you need to help with your decision. You can then factor in the subjective stuff yourself: the brand, its image, the car’s styling and so on.

Anyway, what’s actually new about the Model Y? Well, this is a heavy facelift of the car that first arrived in the UK in 2021. The looks have been updated, the interior has been revised and, thanks to some efficiency improvements, the Model Y can now travel a bit farther between charges. We’re testing the current range-topper, which combines a 75kWh (usable capacity) battery with four-wheel drive and rather a lot of power.

For slightly less money, you could have a top-of-the-range (if we exclude the sporty vRS version) Skoda Enyaq 85x. The Enyaq has just been given a mid-life nip and tuck and now features the Czech brand’s ‘Tech-Deck’ face. It can charge faster than before, too.

Our third contender is the Kia EV6, a car we’ve lavished praise upon ever since we voted it our Car of the Year back in 2022. Late last year it gained a bigger battery with an 80kWh usable capacity for an improved official range, along with some subtle styling tweaks. However, it’s hard not to raise an eyebrow when you see the asking price of a range-topping four-wheel-drive version. Is it really worth the extra outlay over the others?

KIA EV6