2023 Subaru BRZ vs Tesla Model Y

What's the difference?

It’s an increasingly rare combination. An affordable sports car with a naturally aspirated engine in the front, driving the rear wheels through a manual gearbox. 

In the not-too-distant future enthusiast drivers will be talking about the good old days when the second-generation Subaru BRZ was sitting new in showrooms with a sub-$45K price sticker on the windscreen.

And maybe this BRZ S manual represents your last chance to acquire a mainstream performance-focused combustion car offering such a pure experience behind the wheel.  

It’s roughly 12 months since Subaru launched the current BRZ in Australia, well ahead of its Toyota GR86 twin, with the first 500 examples selling in the blink of an eye.

So, now that the dust has settled, and a relatively modest price rise from earlier in the year has been bedded down, it’s time to catch up with Subaru’s in-demand two-door.    

This version of Tesla’s Model Y is the new frontier for enthusiasts. How do you make an electric performance car?

It should be easy, right? Just up the power of the motors - no need to fit a larger, more complex engine, and make sure you’ve got a battery with the appropriate outputs.

There’s far more than meets the eye. The big question is, is it worth the significant additional spend over the base Model Y?

We grabbed one of the earliest examples of the Performance to hit Australian shores to find out.