Can you believe that the Tesla Model 3 has been in production for six whole years? That’s one pandemic, two presidents, three Fast & Furious films worth of time. Over that six-year span, it’s become one of the most popular cars in the world, so it seems about time that Tesla gave it a facelift. Well, the much-anticipated Project Highland is finally here, a comprehensive update to the swift-selling electric sedan. Despite being a mid-cycle refresh, it seems extensive, with Tesla claiming that 50 percent of the Model 3’s parts are new for 2024. Shall we see what’s changed?
Up front, the Model 3 looks less amphibian than before. From the strong horizontal headlights to the deletion of the pout in the front bumper, the new Model 3 manages to simultaneously look sleeker and more boring than the outgoing car. I reckon the simplification of the front bumper is partially to blame, for the deletion of in-bumper lamp assemblies combined with simpler lines leaves a lot of unbroken painted surface on the front end.
The rear end is cleaner than the outgoing car’s in a good way, with sleeker taillights, the Tesla wordmark replacing the logo on the trunk, and a new rear bumper than conjures up shades of Model S. Interestingly, the taillights are entirely mounted on the trunklid, which means the European-style rear fog lamps in the bumper could double as multifunction lamp assemblies to maintain legality. As for other exterior bits, the 2024 Model 3 gets new 18-inch and 19-inch wheels, along with two new paint colors — a new red and a new grey.
On the inside, I’m simultaneously impressed and repulsed that Tesla managed to pull even more out of an already spartan interior. The woodgrain strip across the dashboard is gone, replaced by a strip of contrasting trim further up the dashboard, just above the air vents. Sure, ambient lighting joins the party to jazz things up a bit, but I don’t think it makes the revised dashboard look any less like a paper shredder.
Speaking of the dashboard, the 15.4-inch everything display sports thinner bezels and claims higher brightness and contrast than before, a sensible upgrade considering the old car’s screen quality was starting to age slightly. If you’re going to make tech the focus of your interior, you better be latched onto the latest trends like an aphid. Speaking of trends, here’s one that’s far overdue: Ventilated front seats. The new Tesla Model 3 can cool your buttocks, provided you’re riding up front. Now that’s a great piece of tech. However, not all technology in the revised Model 3 is good.
No more stalks, just controls on the steering wheel for basic lamp and washer functions. Look, this was a dumb idea on the Ferrari 458 Italia and it’s an even dumber idea here because stalks don’t move with the steering wheel. No matter how much lock you have wound on, stalks are always in the same place. Sure, moving the indicators to capacitive touch buttons on the steering wheel may be cheaper, but I’m not convinced it’s safer than what everyone’s already used to. Likewise, the shifter is now in the touchscreen, which doesn’t exactly sound user-friendly. Well, that’s cost-cutting for you.
Weirdly, although the front of the passenger compartment is more minimalist than ever before, the rear seat gains its own eight-inch screen with multimedia and climate functions. Factory-installed rear seat entertainment in a car of this size and price is fairly unprecedented, but it should make Uber rides more comfortable. Speaking of comfort, the new Model 3 uses laminated rear side window and rear window glass to reduce noise, nearly giving it a full array of laminated glass. Oh, and the uplevel premium audio system grows from 14 speakers to 17 speakers, while base audio is a nine-speaker affair.
As far as mechanical changes go, ride quality over small imperfections in the outgoing car is certainly busy, so Tesla has re-tuned the springs and dampers, altered the front suspension geometry, and stiffened the actual chassis in the aim of ironing out tar snakes.
Tesla hasn’t released details on battery size or EPA range just yet, but we can learn a few things by comparing WLTP range. According to Tesla’s European website, the rear-wheel-drive car sees an 11-mile bump in WLTP range, while the Long Range dual-motor car sees a slightly smaller nine-mile bump in WLTP range. Peak charging speeds remain unchanged over the outgoing car, and relatively small range increases on an optimistic cycle could mean that the bulk of extra mileage comes from aerodynamic improvement.
There’s no word yet on when the refreshed Tesla Model 3 will make it to American roads, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see it by the end of next year. It’s typically much easier to tool up for a mid-cycle refresh than for an all-new model, although with a refresh this extensive, you never know. Oh, and pricing in Europe and China sees a slight bump with the new model, so watch out for that when this revamped Model 3 comes stateside. Overall, this facelift isn’t revolutionary, but it should keep Tesla’s entry-level sedan ahead of the pack.
(Photo credits: Tesla)
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I hoped they’d gone in a whole other styling direction.Their look,while non-threatening, is unbelievably tired.
Also the model 3’s front end has always been awkwardly low.It’s disappointing to see it’s still that way.
And while i’m here,screw you tesla for not having control stalks.How can they not see how f***ed up this is???
Guess I’m in the minority, but I like it. Take out all the flair; it’s an appliance and that’s okay. Not every model of car has to be focused on immersion and driving dynamics. Some people – including me most of the time – just want to get where they’re going with as little fuss as possible. I don’t need a gauge cluster displaying a bunch of information. How fast I’m going is really the only relevant thing; the rest can be hidden away and it can pop up if there’s an issue and I do need to think about it.
Regarding the stalks: is the steering ratio on the 3 so loose that you need to go hand-over-hand making a turn? Otherwise, isn’t it better to have the controls in the same place relative to your hands no matter what you’re doing with the wheel?
I always compared the lack of anything in front of the driver to a Tata nano, but honestly the nano interior is much nicer looking now.
I would like stalks too, but in the end, rationality wins and I would feel stupid not including the model 3 in my short list (European viewpoint):
-MG4/5
-Volvo EX30
-Tesla 3
-Renault Megane
and possibly some BYD models.
I will not even consider this car until they put some kind of cluster or HUD and a better interior. I don’t wanna pay 40k for a slab of vegan leather with an iPad stuck to it.
Yeah the old one was already pushing it, but this one looks completely phoned in. I’m not sold on all this minimalist crap being forced on us, it’s just lazy design that sucks to actually use, and they’re not even trying to hide the cynical corporate cost-cutting at the expense of the consumer anymore.
No stalks = no sale. Not even a test drive. That’s nuts.
I had a Lucid drive by me yesterday and holy shit it looks good. It was like a spaceship went past me.
As Tesla lowers some of it products to the plebs, Lucid will be scooping up the “oh look at how eco friendly I am before I get in my private jet” crowd of virtue signalers.
Tesla sold like crazy early on because it wasn’t a prius, but let people feel better than others. Well, now Lucid is here to take their place. If they can release a car without a lot of problems I think they will have a good run. Styling is totally different than Rivian, the only other real EV competitor (non-traditional auto maker).
Anyways, nice update by tesla here, still not a fan of what they do with their screens. Its a car people not a fucking computer.
The Lucid designers are doing amazing work nobody ever sees. It’s a shame.
Maybe Hyundai will buy Lucid when it goes out of business and have an über Genesis marque.
They have Saudi backing so they’ll probably be fine.
I liked the front end styled after the Renault Caravelle. This looks like a blob. And not in a good way. The rear is sort of anonymous as well.
While normally I’m not a fan of classic car EV conversions, I do think it’d be funny to rebadge a Renault Caravelle as a Tesla and commit to pretending it’s a 1968 Tesla Roadster.
“I didn’t know Tesla was making cars that long ago…”
“Oh yeah, they used to be pretty obscure and unknown, but they’ve really come a long way since!”
Tesla making the Model 3’s interior even more minimalistic makes me wonder if future Tesla interiors will consist of nothing more but a VR headset and bluetooth steering with everything else operated by voice commands since it’s the Tesla owner’s favorite rebuttal against those criticizing its touchscreen menu controls.
Nice tailights though.
The model 3 rides hard.The word for the ride is flinty. It grates. It gets to you. I’m convinced the horsecart ride is why so many model 3 drivers drive angry. They just want to get where they’re going as quickly as possible in order to stop getting beat up by half inch expansion joints. I’m very suspicious of these minor suspension changes. What the model 3 needs is a complete suspension overhaul and some 70 series Avon tires.
Tires with actual sidewalls would probably help.
The rubber band tires are bad, but they’re exacerbated by Teslas stretched tire fitment. Not only does it make you more likely to curb and chip your rims(on purpose? Sell more replacement wheels?) it prevents the sidewall from flexing as it should and hurts ride.
Every car should run the smallest diameter wheel and largest diameter tire that clears, change my mind
Yup, 18″ wheels (smallest they offer) really helps. Also, if you’re coming from anything sporty, the ride is very average. My R53 Mini Cooper S JCW was way stiffer, but on par with most BMWs I’ve driven of that era. The Tesla performs very well in the twisties, so the stiffness is fine. Its not a Buick.
Tesla seems to have followed the iPhone product model, great innovation and ease of use to begin with, followed by some cheaper knock offs trying to compete, but then the cheap knock offs actually start catching up and out-innovating(oled screens, water resistance, larger screens, folding screens) and they’re no longer innovating, just riding the ‘it’s an iPhone’ wave.
That’s where it seems Tesla is, and now people will be using their proprietary connectors too which makes the core product’s lack of innovation even more noticeable. Where’s vehicle to ground power? They’re removing more parts like parking sensors, parking sensors have been working fine for the past 20 years! In the frickin’ Prius so they can’t cost that much!
Maybe they’re slowly winding down production of cars by decontenting them to heck? The 2033 Model 3 will be whatever the gigapress can poop out in one piece that they can paint red and cover in pleather inside.
Folding screens are stupid, what’s the automotive equivalent? The iPhone succeeds because it’s pretty much a mature product, the improvements are in core functionality, processing power, the software, and durability.
None of its competitors can communicate in places where there is no cell service like the new iPhones can using satellites.
> Folding screens are stupid, what’s the automotive equivalent?
Teslas whose roofs come flying off while you’re driving?
this is a 30k car friend, calm yourself. You want cost savings without parts being removed? What world or timeline do you live in?
People pine for a simpler, cheaper car, tesla starts doing one and people cry like little babies.
“You want cost savings without parts being removed? What world or timeline do you live in?”
Not so much remove as not put in.
I’d prefer to live in “a world or timeline” where that giant glass roof is just a conventional steel one and the money saved put into proper gauges, switchgear and levers. I (and I would think by now most other folks) already have a tablet so we can save even more money by not putting in a rear screen.
I’m still not wild about the baby Beluga shape, but it looks much less like a trim piece fell off the front than it used to.
The WLTP range improvements you’re quoting are a lot smaller than other sources.
From The Drive:
“ Updated WLTP range figures for the rear-wheel-drive Model 3 see the standard model achieve 344 miles with 18-inch wheels, while the Long Range model will achieve an impressive 421 miles. That’s a decent improvement of approximately 12 percent over the current Model 3, which posted WLTP range figures of 305 and 374 miles, respectively.”
https://www.thedrive.com/news/this-could-be-the-new-tesla-model-3-highland
Touchscreen… shifter…? That’s dumb, right? I’m not the crazy one, right?
Just wait until we have voice-controlled throttle, swipe-to-steer, and gesture-based braking!
That’s not only dumb but also dangerous IMHO. That’s just awful
How is this even legal?! Are there no DOT standards for how a gearshift lever or switch should operate? Same goes for lack of stalk controls.
Three point turns are about to get interesting..
Never realized how much I enjoy knowing I can shift my cars whether or not the infotainment functioned until now.
I’m starting to get triggered every time I see mention of aerodynamic improvements to range. Sure highway range. I wish range was stated as with ICE vehicles. Separate low speed stop and go urban, separate highway and then combined.
Hopefully they can make it more accurate than gas car ratings, which are usually not the same as real world numbers but they’re not consistently off either, so it’s just a crapshoot.
Eh, highway range is what matters. Almost nobody needs 200+ miles of range around town, and at around-town speeds the range estimates are accurate to pessimistic.
Wow, that’s an ugly interior. (Not to mention a continuation of the enraging, distracting “stuff all the extra controls on the screen” garbage.)
For what’s marketed as status-symbol EV, it has no excuse for the interior looking like a worse place to be than a bad 1970s economy car. This interior looks like something out of a dystopian story where everyone is forced to ride in soulless vehicles with no features or creature comforts. There is absolutely nothing inviting about the inside of the Model 3.
I’m surprised Tesla beat BMW to removing the turn signal stalk. Or even those full size SUV makers who apparently put the stalk three seats away from the driver where it won’t interfere with the business of ignoring everybody on the road.
We’ve had our Model Y for over three years now and THE biggest gripe we have is that there is no stalk for the wipers. It’s just stupid. Sure, we got used to the way we have to operate it, and we’ve had UI updates that make it *less* stupid, but no stalk is just dumb. The simple interior is actually really nice long-term and it’s super easy to clean. We love the car, overall, but no wiper stalk is easily the biggest problem. Now that they’ve done this I’m not sure I can justify replacing it with a newer one that has ZERO stalks. Bad move on their part.
Does your Y have the capacitive touch turn signals on the steering wheel? I’ve seen a lot of criticism of those (and personally think it’s a dangerous decision to move those controls to a touchscreen), but I’d love to hear from someone who is actually living with it.
It does not. It has a turn-signal stalk that also controls high-beams and has a push-button on the end that allows you to spray washer fluid or just briefly engage the wipers for mist. When you push that button it also brings up a small display box on the lower left of the main screen that would allow you to select what wiper level you may want. You can also just push the right thumbwheel on the steering wheel and say “Turn on wipers Level 3” or whatever and it will do it but it’s all answers to a question that was solved with a stalk on *normal* cars.
Getting used to the screen wasn’t that hard. The hardest part between switching from this back to our gas cars is forgetting to shut them off when you leave. With the Tesla you just get out and walk away and with the gas cars you have that extra step, LOL.
I remember the commercial where the new Beetle was introduced. The customer says, “It looks just like the old Beetle.” The spokesman says, “The trouble with you people is, you want too much.” Also, the interior looks like the final waiting room from Soylent Green.
When I saw these pics, I thought it’s only a matter of time before the old Beetle v.s. Super Beetle debate comes up.
They were both put on pedestals. One had a great sense of humor.
Man I hate that interior. The previous 3 interior was awful, and the ergonomics sucked ass, so of course they are going to double down on that. Less is not more. Less is less.
I’ll never understand why companies insist the future must have no mechanical controls.
The answer, as usual, is $
It makes the buyers think the cars can drive themselves.