2023 Tesla Model Y vs 2021 Volvo XC90

What's the difference?

One thing is for sure, it’s definitely a performance car, but not as we know it.

This version of the Tesla Model Y is the ultimate tech gadget on four wheels. It’s incredibly fast, has unbelievable, unnerving handling, and importantly what seems to be the best software in the business. Coming in significantly cheaper than its European performance EV rivals, it doesn’t even seem like bad value.

But. Enthusiasts be warned. There is an element of drama missing here, the Model Y is almost too good at attacking the road, there’s no roaring feedback or imperfections for you to correct, and for this reason alone, even if it’s the future, I don’t think it’s going to be for everyone.

The XC90 Recharge makes a lot of sense for a family with a couple of kids, who live and spend most of their time in the city and surrounding suburbs.

You’ll need access to a power point for charging and you’ll have to do it regularly to get the best out of this SUV, but in return you’ll get effortless and efficient driving, along with the practicality and prestige which comes with any XC90. 

If you’ve seen one Tesla, you’ve pretty much seen them all, with the Model Y Performance doing little to set itself apart from the rest of the range.

It’s all part of Tesla’s minimalist Silicon Valley aesthetic. Like various models of iPhone, the changes between models are meant to be felt and not seen.

The Uberturbine wheels are of course a highlight, really filling the arches compared to the standard hub cab-wearing ones which ship on the standard Model Y, but they are also the only option on the Performance, too bad if you’re not a fan of matt black.

On the inside there are no surprises, either. The same minimalist aesthetic applies, as usual to a fault.

I feel like I’m sitting in the Apple Store, with just a big floating tablet being the main decoration.

Our car had the wood-look trim option, which is the most preferable option of the two. I found the white plastic fill alternative a bit cheap-feeling during my test of the standard Model Y.

I think the minimalism of the Model Y’s cabin will help it age well, but as I usually complain about these Tesla cabins. There’s no dash cluster or even a head-up display which feels like a bit of a usability blunder. Who wants to look at a centre display for critical information on the car?

Cars are like dogs in that a year for them ages them more than one for us. So, this current-generation XC90 which came out in 2015 is getting on in age. Still, the XC90 is a design lesson in how to defy the aging process because the styling even now it appears modern and beautiful. It’s also big, tough, and prestigious looking which is how the flagship SUV in a premium brand should be.

The Thunder Grey paint my test car wore (see the images) is an optional hue, and it suited the battleship size and personality of the XC90. The enormous 22-inch five -spoke Black Diamond Cut alloy wheels were standard and filled up those giant arches nicely.

Maybe it’s the minimalist styling which has kept the XC90 looking cutting edge, because even the interior looks like the inside of a very expensive psychiatrist’s office with those leather seats and the brushed aluminium trim.

The vertical display is still impressive even in 2021, and while fully digital instrument clusters are in everything these days the XC90’s has a prestigious look and matches the rest of the cabin in its colours and fonts.

As for the XC90’s dimensions, it’s 4953mm long, 2008mm wide with the mirrors folded and 1776mm tall to the top of its shark fin antenna.

The Model Y feels much bigger than the Model 3 so it will definitely hit the sweet spot for people who wanted a Tesla but found the Model 3 too cramped for a family.

Everywhere feels expanded, especially headroom, and the minimalist design leaves room for big door pockets and the flat floor leaves room for extra large stowage areas under the centre console.

I especially like the way the dual wireless chargers integrate with the design here.

There are a few hidden hard plastics, but Tesla has put soft-touch and padded surfaces in all the right areas.

The seats are reasonably comfortable, but I’m not sure how the synthetic leather trim will age in the Australian sun particularly as there’s no way to cover the big panoramic sunroof.

Not everyone has a garage. Interestingly though the car does have a cabin overheat protection function, which automatically starts the air conditioning should the cabin exceed a certain temperature.

Still, there are a lot of months in the year our brutal sun will be cooking the interior.

If you’ve read any of my Tesla reviews before, you’ll know I’m not a huge fan of the need to control pretty much all of the car's key functions through the central touchscreen.

It feels like a shame to complain about this, because the software is truly beautiful, and Tesla backs it with powerful computer hardware to keep the screen fast and responsive.

But having no dash cluster feels like a bit of a design-over-usability trait, especially when you go to adjust some of this car’s settings on the fly.

Clever interior packaging means the XC90 Recharge is more practical than many large SUVs. There are flashes of utilitarian brilliance everywhere from the children’s booster seat which pops out of the centre of the second row (see the images) to the way the XC90 can crouch down like an elephant to make it easier to load stuff into the boot.

The XC90 Recharge is a seven-seater, and like all SUVs with third rows those seats in the very back only offer enough room for kids. The second row is spacious even for me at 191cm tall with plenty of leg- and headroom. Up front as you’d expect has good head-, elbow- and shoulder room.

Cabin storage is good with two cup holders in each row (the third also has containers under the armrests) and there are large door pockets, a decent sized centre console box and a net pocket in the front passenger footwell.

The cargo capacity with all seats being used is 291 litres and with the third row folded flat you’ll have 651 litres of boot space.

Storage for the charging cable could be better. The cable comes in a stylish canvas bag that sits in the boot, but other plug-in hybrids I’ve driven do a better job of providing a storage box for the cable that’s out of the way of your regular cargo.  

The gesture control tailgate works with a foot swish under the rear of the car and the proximity key means you can lock and unlock the vehicle by touching the door handle.

The cargo area is filled with hooks for bags and a lift-up divider to hold items in place.

Four-zone climate control, four USB ports (two in the front and two in the second row) dark tinted rear windows and sun blinds top off what is a very practical, family SUV.

My family is small – there’s just three of us – and so the XC90 was more than what we needed. That said, we found a way to fill it with holiday gear, shopping, even a mini trampoline.

The XC90 Recharge lists for $114,990 making it the most expensive grade in the XC90 range.

Still, the value is excellent considering the number of features which come standard.

The 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster standard, so is the nine-inch vertical centre display for media and climate control, there’s also sat nav, a Bowers and Wilkins 19-speaker stereo, wireless phone-charging, four-zone climate control, power-adjustable front seats, proximity key with auto tailgate and LED headlights.

My test car was fitted with options such as the Nappa Leather perforated and ventilated seats in Charcoal ($2950), the Climate pack which adds heated rear seats and a heated steering wheel ($600), power folding headrests in the rear ($275) and Thunder Grey metallic paint ($1900).

Even at a grand total (before on-road costs) of $120,715 I think this is still good value.

Tesla, always mysterious when it comes to hard specs, does not offer official power and torque figures for any of its models. Just the ever-impressive 0-100km/h sprint times.

However, looking at documentation the brand has officially filed in China (where the Model Y for our market is built) reveals specs of 220kW/440Nm for the rear motor, and 137kW/219Nm for the front motor, placing it pretty far up there in the EV performance charts.

It’s not just raw power, either. The Model Y performance also scores a lowered ride, bigger brakes, impressive torque vectoring software to keep everything under control, and interestingly, what Tesla tells us is a new suspension tune (even newer than the set-up we tested when the Model Y first arrived in Australia in late 2022.)

It’s all very impressive-sounding, but does it work? Read on to find out.

The XC90 Recharge (Volvo calls it this, so for simplicity let's do it, too) is an all-wheel drive SUV with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder supercharged and turbo-charged engine, producing 246kW and 440Nm, plus an electric motor which adds 65kW and 240Nm.

Shifting gears is an eight-speed automatic and acceleration is rapid at 5.5 seconds for the 0-100km/h sprint.

All XC90s have a 2400kg braked towing capacity.

The 11.6kWh lithium ion battery is located under the floor in a tunnel which runs down the centre of the car covered by the centre console and hump in the footwell of the second row.

If you didn’t realise, this is the type of hybrid you need to plug into a power source to charge the batteries. A power point is fine but a wall unit is faster.  If you don’t plug in, the battery will only get tiny whiff of charge from the regenerative braking and that won’t be enough to put a tiny dent in your fuel consumption.

The Model Y Performance has an official, WLTP-rated consumption number of 15.4kWh/100km, which grants the car a 514km driving range.

Few EVs manage to get over the 500km range mark, so this fact alone is pretty impressive.

In our testing the car returned a higher figure of 18.7kWh/100km, reducing range to the mid-400s on a full charge.

We only had the car for three days, so I expect, like the standard Model Y, it would be possible to get close to the official number with a longer-term test.

When it comes to charging, the Model Y can hit an impressive 250kW on a fast DC charger, allowing a charge time of around half an hour on a compatible unit. Expect more like an hour and a half on a more common 50kW unit.

Meanwhile the slow AC charger will hit a peak of 11kW, allowing the Model Y to charge from 10 per cent in more like seven hours. Still, adding roughly 75km of range an hour is worth it for longer stays at shopping centres or the like.

Interestingly, the Model Y doesn’t offer V2L, that is - the ability to power devices from its charging port. It seems to be one key piece of EV equipment missing from its spec list.

Volvo says that after a combination of urban and open roads the XC 90 Recharge should use 2.1L/100km. That’s incredible - we’re talking about a five-metre long, 2.2-tonne, seven-seat SUV here.

In my testing the fuel economy varied greatly depending on how and where I drove the XC90.

There was a week where I only drove up to 15km a day doing the day care drop-offs, the shopping, popping into work in the CBD, but all within 10km of my home. With 35km of electric range I found that I only had to charge the XC90 every second day to keep it topped up to full and, according to the trip computer, after 55km of travel I was using 1.9L/100km.

I recharged using the outdoor power point in my driveway and using this method would take just less than five hours to fully charge the battery from empty. A wall unit or fast charger will top the battery up much quicker.

The charging cable is long at more than 3m, and the flap on the XC90 is located on the front left wheel guard.

If you don’t have a way of charging the XC90 regularly then fuel consumption will go up, obviously.

This happened when our family took a break down the coast and the holiday house we stayed at didn’t have a power point within reach. So, while we had been charging the car regularly in the week beforehand with a few long trips thrown in on motorways, for the four days we were away I didn’t plug it in at all.

After 598.4km I filled it back to full at the petrol pump with 46.13 litres of premium unleaded. That comes to 7.7L/100km, which is still great fuel economy given that the last 200km would have been without charging.

The lesson is the XC90 Recharge is most fuel efficient on short suburban and city trips with daily or every second-day charging.  

A larger capacity battery would add more range and make this plug-in hybrid SUV better suited to people who live further out of the city and do more motorway miles.

I’ll just cut to the chase here: Sorry Musk haters, the Model Y Performance is truly, deeply impressive.

I didn’t stopwatch test its 0-100km/h sprint time, but 3.7 seconds certainly feels possible, and totally visceral.

Yes, the Model Y Performance will turn your groceries into a fine paste on the back of the boot if you stick your foot in, but the sprint time is far from the most impressive part of the drive experience.

I’d hand this honour over to the handling. The Model Y is simply incredible at holding onto the road.

Try as I might on one of Sydney’s best and curviest roads, the Model Y simply wouldn’t misbehave.

It’s almost surreal feeling the computers work their magic in the corners, taming the physics of a 2.0-tonne SUV, constantly fighting understeer or oversteer on the fly to keep it all tidy.

It does all of this in silence, with just the tyre roar to indicate your velocity. I must admit. I didn’t expect such ferocious ability from this car.

I certainly expected speed, but not this level of tidiness for something heavier and taller than a Model 3.

The trouble for a traditional car enthusiast, then, is the fact the Model Y is almost too good. It’s clinical in the way it attacks the road, and feels almost unfair, artificial, as though a computer is doing the work for you (it might as well be).

It feels risk-free, drama-free, feedback-free. While the experience of driving such a machine is nothing short of incredible, I somehow think it’s not the kind of thrills combustion enthusiasts are looking for.

Even the steering is artificial, with three heavily computer-assisted modes. I must say, 'Sport' and 'Standard' are a bit too heavy, with my preferred steering mode being the 'Chill' setting, which is the lightest and makes the car feel a bit easier to wrangle in the corners.

The three regen modes will actually appeal to a variety of tastes, allowing the car to behave either like a single-pedal EV (my preferred mode) or more like a combustion car, with a creep mode and a roll mode which will be more familiar to those who haven’t experienced an EV before, or are not fans of regenerative braking.

The new suspension has improved the ride significantly, with the Model Y Performance lacking the brittle edge which I experienced when the Model Y first arrived a few months ago.

It feels like it deals with sudden jolts a bit better, but make no mistake, this is still a firm ride, and the Y still has a firm frame.

While the ride has improved, it is still susceptible to significant amounts of jiggle, with the ride being notably busy over poor road surfaces. Still, it’s good to see this common issue with Teslas starting to move in the right direction.

We put more than 700km on the clock of the XC90 Recharge during the three weeks it stayed with my family, covering a lot of motorway miles, country roads and a stack of urban usage, too.

Now without sounding like one of the haters who hated on me the last time I test-drove a Volvo hybrid, you will need to charge the XC90 Recharge all the time if you want to get not only the best fuel economy, but also the best performance from the SUV, too.

There’s the extra oomph from the motor, when you have enough charge in the ‘tank’ but also the serene and smooth pleasure of driving in electric mode on city and urban trips.

That tranquil electric driving experience feels kind of at odds with a large SUV at first, but having now tested a few big family plug-in hybrids and EVs I can tell you it’s a more enjoyable one.

Movement is not only smooth, but the electric grunt provides a feeling of control with an instant response which I found reassuring in traffic and at intersections.

The transition from electric motor to petrol engine is almost seamless. Volvo and Toyota are only a couple of the few brands which seemed to have achieved this.

The XC90 is large and that presented a challenge when trying to pilot it into my narrow driveaway and in car parks, but light, accurate steering and excellent visibility with large windows and cameras galore helped there.

The auto parking feature works well even on the higgledy-piggledy streets in my neighbourhood.

Topping off an effortless driving experience is air suspension which provides a cushioned and composed ride, with great body control all while wearing those 22-inch wheels and low-profile rubber.

Volvo has for decades been a pioneer of safety systems to such an extreme that people used to make fun of the brand for being overly cautious. Well, take it from this helicopter parent: there’s no such thing as being overly cautious! Besides, these days all car brands are striving to offer advanced safety systems which the XC90 has had for years. Yep, safety is cool now. Which makes Volvo the Kanye of car brands.

Coming standard on the XC90 Recharge is AEB which works at city speeds to brake for pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and even large animals.

There’s also lane keeping assistance, blind spot warning, cross traffic alert with braking (front and rear).

Steering support provides assistance during at evasive manoeuvre at speeds between 50 and 100km/h.

Curtain airbags cover all three rows and for child seats there are two ISOFIX mounts and three top tether anchor points in the second row. Note, there are no mounts or points for child seats in the third row.

A space-saver spare is under the boot floor.

The XC90 was given the maximum five-star ANCAP rating when it tested in 2015.  

It’s a good question: What’s it like to own a Tesla. Some of the numbers aren’t promising, like, for example, the four-year and 80,000km warranty promise which is one of the shortest new car warranties on the market right now.

However, Tesla does cover the high voltage battery and drive components for a much longer eight years and 192,000km, guaranteeing 70 per cent of the car’s original battery capacity at that time.

Teslas have condition-based servicing (because, of course they do), meaning the car will tell you when it wants to visit a Tesla workshop based on various inputs. Seems logical, but not very transparent.

The XC90 is covered by a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty. Two service plans are offered: three years for $1500 and five years for $2500.