Tesla Model Y Performance

DOES a family SUV need to do 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds? That's what the Tesla Model Y Performance is capable of. It means this all-electric SUV, with its generous cabin space and huge boots both front and rear, has the chops to keep pace with an Aston Martin Vantage in a traffic-light Grand Prix. All the more impressive for £61,990.

- Alex Ingram

But we doubt many shoppers are comparing the specs of a Model Y and a beautiful British GT when considering their next set of wheels. Instead, the Tesla has a few more intriguing and evenly matched rivals; most notably the £65,100 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, and the less extreme, £50,995 MG IM6 Performance.

The American brand's outrageous acceleration figures alone are often enough to convince buyers, yet a driver's car needs more than that to be entertaining. And it's to those bits that the engineers of the Performance have turned their focus here.

Styling is an easy place to aim for if you want to draw in the admirers, and in this respect the Performance is off to a strong start. It adopts the new frontal treatment of its revised Model Y rangemates - including the slim Cybertruck-style lightbar - but it also gains bolder air intakes in the bumpers to show off its extra sporting intent.

New forged 21-inch alloys - wider at the front than the rear - fill the wheelarches and look great, and a carbon-fibre rear lip spoiler adds balance to the overall shape. Such changes are claimed to have reduced aerodynamic drag by 10 per cent compared with the pre-facelift Performance, and cut lift by 64 per cent. Our test car's Ultra Red paint really popped in bright sunlight, too.