Tesla Model Y Performance review: faster power meets familiar EV comfort

The new Tesla Model Y is quickly becoming part of the furniture again, comfortably maintaining its status as the world's best-selling car.

The redesign brought us a neater design, plenty of other small improvements, and essentially made one of the easiest EVs to live with even easier to live with.

Tesla offers very tempting finance deals, attractive entry prices, a polished buying process, and access to the superb Supercharging network, so they're an easy sell already, but the latest version has now had a "Performance" variant added to the range. So the straight-line sprinters have something to be excited about.

The news they'll be clamouring for is an extra 40bhp, taking it to a moderately lairy 460. It's good for a 0-60 time of 3.5 seconds and, as you can imagine, that's pretty vivid when you floor it from a standing start in "insane" mode.

But that's not the full story. There have been a few aerodynamic tweaks to help it carry its performance through the air without taking off, new bushings and dampers, modified steering knuckles, and a lot of attention has been paid to the suspension, it's an adaptive system that makes a huge difference to its road manners, and this alone makes a strong case for choosing the performance model.

Inside there are a few sporty touches, most notably the lovely seats, but there's little else to distinguish it from the standard Y in a decent trim.

Driven in a spirited manner, the extra power is noticeable, and the tweaks to the ride and handling are obvious. It's still not a sports car, it's too heavy for that, but it's quite remarkable how well you can gather pace while skimming along silently and lapping up the luscious ride.

In almost every measurable way, the new Model Y feels much better than the predecessor, and adding the Performance plumage really does move the game on another notch.

I think its biggest issue, however, is just who it's going to appeal to. The new Model 3 has a Performance version that arguably makes more sense as a sporty car, because it's a low-slung saloon. It might not always look like it, but the Model Y is basically an SUV.

The Performance versions have a little less in the way of range, cost significantly more, and don't really add much in the way of day-to-day functionality.

Leaping off the line like your tail is on fire is fun when you've got your mother-in-law in the back and you want to wind her up, but it's little more than a party trick. You have to remember, the standard Model Y is no slouch.

And then you need to remember that, while a standard Model Y in its most basic trim costs £41,990, the Performance version costs £61,990. So it's £20,000 more than the base model and still £10,000 more than the AWD Premium model.

But I suppose it doesn't really matter, because this is a car that will sell in droves regardless. And the Performance version might bring slight compromises in overall range, but it'll be the one to pick if you can afford it and you like to impress. And it certainly does impress.