Kia EV6 GT Drags Tesla Model Y Performance, Someone Gets Battered and Bruised

The main reason this car enthusiast has set up the channel is to show his weekend racing exploits at the track – where he took all of his beloved cars, including the previously-sold 2018 Chevy Camaro 1SS (6.2-liter V8, A8) or 2020 Honda Accord Sport (2.0-liter turbo, A10), plus his current roster of 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP with a supercharged 3.8-liter V6 and A4, a newer 2022 Honda Accord Sport, as well as a 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51.

Usually, we see him race one of those rides – particularly the Stingray- because it's the newest and most appropriate for such use-case scenarios. But on this occasion, he kept to the sidelines and didn't bother to ask anyone else for footage of his racing exploits. Instead, a 2023 Kia EV6 GT caught the videographer's attention as it prepared to race against the most popular electric SUV out there – Tesla's Model Y.

According to a debate that arose in the comments section, this Tesla is indeed a Model Y Performance, as confirmed by the videographer – it's just that the owner swapped the turbine-like wheels with a set from the Long Range model in a bid to slice a few extra tenths of a second off its elapsed time. The Model Y Performance currently retails for $51,490 at the time of writing and has 279 miles of range according to EPA, plus zero to 60 mph (96 kph) in 3.4 seconds and 155-mph top speed performance credentials.

In the other lane sits a silver Kia EV6 GT produced by the South Korean automaker on the dedicated E-GMP architecture, and while the base model now kicks off at $42,600, the flagship GT with AWD starts from $61,600, so it's a good $10k above Model Y Performance's MSRP. The dual-motor AWD setup offers a bit more power, 576 hp, and 545 lb-ft, but the 77.4-kWh battery pack yields an EPA-estimated range of just 218 miles on a charge.

Luckily, the Kia EV6 GT is one zippy EV as it's also equipped with 800-volt DC fast charging technology. Anyway, that matters less at the local dragstrip – it's the raw power and the driver's experience that makes the difference. There is only one skirmish in the video embedded below, so maybe it's not a definitive answer when asking if the Kia EV6 GT is quicker than a Tesla Model Y Performance, but here goes.

So, the Tesla driver had a slightly better reaction time and narrowly took the lead past the Christmas tree but, in the end, couldn't keep up with the EV6 GT even on the short 1/8-mile course and got beat just as narrowly: 7.35s versus 7.55s. If this was a quarter-mile dragstrip, the chances are that difference was even bigger, right?