Model Y vs its rivals

The Tesla Model Y plays by entirely different rules to its segment rivals. At £45,000 it is £14,540 above the £30,460 SUV average — by far the priciest car in this comparison. In return you get 340 PS, nearly double the 182 PS segment mean, and 5.9 seconds to 62 mph, which embarrasses everything else here. As an electric car it has no mpg figure, but its annual energy cost of roughly £560 at 8,000 miles undercuts every rival's fuel bill by hundreds of pounds. Five-year true cost totals £38,550 (£642 a month) — the highest here, because the purchase price dominates the maths. The Model Y is the segment outlier: dramatically more expensive to buy, dramatically cheaper to run, and dramatically quicker than the average SUV.

Model Y vs the SUV segment average

Tesla Model YSegment average (8 cars)
Price from£44,990£30,958.13
Power295 PS177 PS
Fuel economy0.0 mpg50.7 mpg
Est. 5-year true cost£38,543—

Segment average is computed from 8 popular suv models on DrivePedia. True-cost figure is an estimate.

The Model Y suits a very specific buyer. The tech enthusiast gets the fastest, most futuristic car in this group with running costs that petrol SUVs cannot touch — £560 a year in energy versus £1,289 for a Tucson. The high-mileage driver benefits most: the more miles you cover, the faster that fuel saving eats into the £14,540 above-average purchase price. The budget-conscious family buyer, however, should look away — a Qashqai costs £18,000 less to buy. Home charging is also near-essential to realise those savings. Verdict: the Model Y is poor value on purchase price alone but potentially excellent value over five years for high-mileage drivers with a driveway charger. It is an investment, not a bargain. For everyone else, the purchase price remains a formidable barrier to an otherwise brilliant ownership proposition.

Full Tesla Model Y review →

Frequently asked questions

How does the Tesla Model Y compare to rivals on price?
The Model Y costs £45,000, which is £14,540 above the £30,460 SUV average — the most expensive car among these 20 by a wide margin. For context, that is £18,000 more than the Nissan Qashqai (£27,000). You pay a huge premium up front for electric technology and 340 PS performance.
How does the Model Y compare on running costs and economy?
Superbly. Its £560 annual energy cost at 8,000 miles is roughly half the cheapest petrol or hybrid rival's fuel bill — the Qashqai costs £989 a year, the Tucson £1,289. Maintenance is also typically lower on EVs. Despite this, its five-year true cost of £38,550 (£642 a month) remains the highest here because the purchase price outweighs the running-cost savings.
Is the Tesla Model Y good value?
For low-mileage buyers, no — the £14,540 premium over the SUV average is hard to justify. For high-mileage drivers with home charging, the maths improves dramatically: tiny energy costs and strong residuals steadily offset the purchase price. It is the only car here where value depends almost entirely on how you will use it.