TEST DRIVE: I test drove an EV6 in Northern California. I was *very* impressed. This was the GT LINE AWD. Drove great, has real instruments, peppy (but not as fast as model Y).
WAY BETTER THAN Tesla Model Y:
• Charge Speed/Charge Curve: Ev6 says 350 kW to ModelY 250 kW. The charge curve is bizzarre (google it), but it is over 50% rate for much more of the curve. In effect, if you limit your charge stop to 15 min, you have the *same* charge stops on long drives. Try it.
• Heads up display (HUD): OMG. Gives speed, speed limit, AND which way to turn at next Nav direction. This is such a no-brainer for a car without an instrument cluster. Please Elon, please.
• Overhead Parking View: (shows all the cars around you from an overhead view when you switch to reverse) Took my breath away. Please Elon, please. Yes, the MYT, for $12000 will park itself. But the overhead is sooo awesome and useful.
• Blind spot warning: Obvious.
• I'm pretty sure it had reasonable turning radius (Tesla Model Y is awful.)
• 110V outlets (basically, on all trips, someone needs to use their computer for a quick work email/calculation/other). Surely T could have done that.
• Interior quality totally superior, hands down utterly, absolutely blows the Model Y away. You feel like you are in a fancy car - not an unreasonable ask for the $60k price range, after all.
Inferior to Tesla Model Y:
• 276 mile range EV6 vs. Model Y 330 mi. For me, range is very, very important. This is *almost* ameliorated by the EV6 faster charging and superior charge curve, HOWEVER, those are based entirely on ideal chargers and charger performance being available. If not, then the actual is very important.
• Clearance 0.6" less (every mm is precious to me).
• Battery Conditioning not available. Rumors have it they will fix that some time, but...???
• EV6 has VERY DARK interior. Cave-like, claustrophobic. Model Y glass roof is nice and bright and open feeling in daytime. That's nice.
• Less cargo area, smaller limit to cargo size.
• Clearance: 0.6" less than Model Y.
(You will notice I didn't mention acceleration - they are both stupid fast off the line. Who cares if one will get me into even MORE trouble?)
Equally Bad:
• Both cars suffer for REALLY WRETCHEDLY AWFUL VISIBILITY. Why kid yourself? Sucks sucks sucks. We have all seen the vision system fail badly at critical times, so depending on that for blind spot? Oy. So, I think I am just going to have to make neck exercises a way of life so I can look behind that O&@#$^(*#@$^ huge wide pig of a support pillar just where I need to look. (At least the EV6 had a regular blind spot warning. I hope Tesla's little buzzer is dependable. Oy.)
• They're both absurdly heavy. Unfortunately, how to fix that is the $64B question. Battery tech just isn't there yet.
MY USE CASE: Is strictly and only long drives, so range and charge speed and charge curve are critical. Clearance for dirt and snow road is also very important ( alas, nothing but the Rivians have this now, but Rivians have terrible charge times). Winter use is also very important (hence my requrement for AWD, which kills range, darnnit!). I will use this in snowy mountain conditions (believe it or not, there *are* cold places in CA, at least at altitude in the winter).
If these uses aren't important for you, I would definitely consider the EV6. In the first place, you can get them! They show up occasionally at the local dealer. At least as important, it has instruments! What a concept! You don't have to look away from the road to get some car input! Who would ever think of such a thing! And if you are a tech lover, the HUD and the overhead parking view will BLOW YOU AWAY ***AND*** are very useful.
CONCLUSION: for me, for range, clearance, and battery conditioning (for cold temp use), I had no objective choice but to wait forever for a Model Y. I am ****so*** not a fan of Tesla tech and aura. (Despite its wide acceptance, putting the info display out of the field of view of the driver is unforgivably stupid, no objective way around this. Also, features like opening glove compartment with the touch pad... gimmee a break, so impractical.) But the Model Y is efficient, and has a decent amount of batt capacity, and I have to give that to Elon and friends.
The only "hard" stat that Tesla loses is on charge speed/curve. Seems like the EV6 is just one step newer and Tesla has to catch up.
EV6 wins on so many "soft" points though, it is very attractive. So many good things about the instrumentation and driving and general usability. Interior is SOOOO much better. Give it 40 miles more range and I would drop Tesla faster than Falcon orbital velocity.
Now if tesla would just get around to MAKING my gol-dang car...
-TPC