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BMW X3 vs Tesla Model Y

What's the difference?

VS
BMW X3
BMW X3

$86,100 - $128,900

2025 price

Tesla Model Y
Tesla Model Y

$55,900 - $82,900

2025 price

Summary

2025 BMW X3
2025 Tesla Model Y
Safety Rating

Engine Type
Turbo 4, 2.0L

Fuel Type
Premium Unleaded Petrol

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Fuel Efficiency
0.0L/100km (combined)

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Seating
5

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Dislikes
  • Panoramic sunroof doesn't open
  • Gear selector seems fiddly
  • Strictly a five-seater

  • Drive mode selector is silly
  • Warranty below average
  • Feels very heavy when pushed
2025 BMW X3 Summary

If you’ve ever wondered when cars will stop getting bigger…continue to wonder. Because if you’re BMW, it hasn’t happened yet.

The new, fourth-generation BMW X3 is here now and as well as being bigger in every dimension apart from height, it also ushers in revised versions of existing tech, a standardisation of what was once optional and has brought hybridisation to every model in the new line-up.

Just as the 3 Series was once BMW’s bread-and-butter model, in the SUV age, at least some of that responsibility must fall at the X3’s feet. So it’s an important model and one that BMW must get right. At the same time, the new X3 brings into the spotlight the latest corporate design language and BMW, as much as any carmaker, knows how risky that can be.

The brand also understands how divisive the latest interface technology can be, but has elected to fit it to the X3 anyway. That’s faith in the product, right there. But will punters be of the same opinion?

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2025 Tesla Model Y Summary

I don’t think I’m overselling it to say that this is the car that could make or break Tesla in Australia and around the world. 

Crazy, right? That seemed impossible not so long ago, back when the brand appeared untouchable. But new competition, largely from China, plus the giant Musk-shaped elefant (it is German for elephant…) in the room, has seen sales and profit plummet.

Just last month, for example, the Tesla Model Y lost its best-seller crown in Australia to BYD, admittedly in the weeks before the new 'Juniper' version arrived.

The point is, a new version of its biggest seller is a Very Big Deal. But have they changed enough, and changed it well enough, to cut through the noise?

We put the cheapest variant, the Tesla Model Y RWD, to the test to find out.

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Interested in a Tesla Model Y?

Deep dive comparison

2025 BMW X3 2025 Tesla Model Y

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