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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Yawn
Woah, I didn’t think it was possible for a company to facelift a car and make it look nearly identical to the original… Tesla is their own worst enemy.
Yeah, not a good sign when I saw the pics and thought, “I guess we don’t get to see the actual facelift in this article?” Then I read the piece… oh…. This IS the new car. My guess is only Tesla fans are going to notice the differences. And that interior continues to underwhelm. Within a year or two we’ll have even more choices in EV’s. Why would they continue with the utterly bland interior?
Porsche has been doing that for years with the 911.
Difference being the 911 has always been good looking.
Lol, that’s true.
Decades.
I thought you were being coy by putting the current Model 3 in the headline photo…
/insert it’s the same picture office meme here/
Replacing turn signal stalks with capacitive buttons on the wheel is an unforced error. It’s pretty much the one thing everyone agreed about with the Model S yoke steering wheel: the capacitive buttons are easy to press by accident but inconsistent when you try to press them on purpose.
But it’s so hard to take your hand off the wheel and reach alllll the way over to the stalk….
You don’t even have to take your hand off the wheel in most cars! I just reach my pinky finger over while I continue holding the wheel. The button is so stupid I just .. can’t.
(I know you were making a joke but this feature makes me soooo mad.)
I’m sure you saw this lunacy?
https://www.theautopian.com/this-argument-against-turn-signal-stalks-in-favor-of-teslas-little-steering-wheel-buttons-is-so-bad-i-need-to-discuss-it/
Q: “Elon, WHY don’t you just put in controls that have stood the test of time for the better part of 100 years?”
A: “You will like this better.”
More like, “I didn’t invent them, so they can’t be all that great of an idea.”
Capacitive buttons are THE worst. The absolute worst.
And these capacitive buttons are even worse than most. There’s a video where a reviewer hammers the turn signal button for 5 seconds before giving up. They’re just not the right tool for the job.
My thoughts:
I wouldn’t have considered one of these before, and with them doubling down on all the things I dislike I don’t see that changing.
*: There are cars without grilles that I love (the one in my profile picture, for example), but the ones that look like they should have a grille but don’t are just weird.
That’s where I am on the grille vs. no grille debate. 911s are my favorite car! My 411 doesn’t have a grille, either, but it does have some chrome trim that gives it an attractive front end.
Tesla just having a crease there seems unfinished.
I liked the third generation Passat.
At least the steering wheel is still a wheel
But why? It’s got autopilot anyway. /s
Yeah, but we have to wait for Q4- um, Q1 2024… Q2… Q3… etc for it? LOL
It would be nice to have a side-by-side picture, if possible. I blank out when I see one, so I can’t remember what they look like.
It looks like they glued an IPad to the dashboard of a Barbie Jeep.
Barbie Jeeps have way more style than this.
Hey, the Barbie Jeep doesn’t deserve that rude remark, it’s a timeless and iconic design. You can’t even call the Tesla dashboard a design.
Take the Tesla name off the steering wheel, and this can be the star of any number of ads that need the most generic looking, unidentifiable car interior for their ad copy. Yuck.
Looks like they’ve doubled down on this being the economy car for people who can either afford EVs or have the government incentives to. Signals pretty clearly that they think they can rest on their laurels, which might be true for the near future.
Tesla is now the Stellantis EV brand of the market … how long are they planning to run these models for?
Well, it took 6 years for a refresh (and a mild one at that). So, my money is a full model changeover will happen in 2030.
Well the Model S is 12 years old and very long in the tooth now.
I think the Spartan interiors are cool. What happened to everyone hating a plethora of buttons and dials? Maybe a bit of the “bent stick remedy”.
The “too many buttons and dials” problem was mostly a ’90s thing, focused around products with a bunch of identically shaped and slightly unnecessary buttons – like the Pontiac Bonneville’s 12-way seats. That went away once buttons were better designed and functions were more logical.
At no point did people hate dials.
Don’t get me started on their steering wheels.
There was a phase in the 80s and 90s when having loads of buttons in your interior, so it resembled a 747 cockpit, was a status symbol, because more buttons meant you had more things that needed to be operated or controlled, which meant the car must be pretty loaded and fancy. It was the same philosophy behind the massive boom boxes that were heavily stylized with blinking indicators and loads of knobs and switches, the more complicated they looked, the more sophisticated they had to be
…Saab 9-5 enters the comment section…
There’s a middle ground here. As many other complaints as I have against Stellantis, it’s one thing they do right with their infotainment/HVAC systems.
I knew the dumb Model S steering wheel and the loss of the shifter and turn signal stalks was coming—but it’s still colossally stupid. Even if Musk hadn’t lost his mind, that alone would be a deal breaker for me.
Whatever. I’m deliriously happy to be done with Tesla. I sold my Model 3 a few weeks ago and don’t really see buying another.
Just curious, what were your biggest gripes with the Model 3 and what did you go with instead?
A co-worker just sold his for an Ionic5 and hasn’t looked back.
That’s not safe when reversing, even if you have rear cameras.
Touché!
Funny, it doesn’t look newish.
*slow clap*
It’s rare to see something from my second favorite subculture (quotes from Mel Brooks movies) make it to the Autopian. Well done. Well done…
My all time favorite movie joke. The delivery, the way the ears perk up, the direct eye contact, perfect!
1….2…..3……4
New “generic car on a bottle of wax” launched!
wow, that interior looks about as exciting as a new set of winter floor mats.
I could use some floor mats…
noting like a good set of mats. I just got some Weathertech for my truck. They suck.
Weathertech used to be absolutely perfect. Not sure what happened to them.
Had Weathertech for a previous vehicle and they were great. That sucks if the quality dropped off.
Try tuxmats, if you want quality and are ok paying for it.
Not sure if it just a hard fit for my Colorado or what. But the edges get all bent over and some of the sides are buckling. One is buckling enough that it catches my foot when I press on the gas pedal. I think it they were thicker material it might not be so prone to these issues. Who knows. They used to be my go-to without fail. I guess nothing is forever.
I disagree, winter floor mats are much more exciting.
Even 8 years later my winter floor mats make me happy every time I look at them.
This…doesn’t.
It still looks like something my kid would model in 30 seconds out of a single can of playdoh. “Make a car”
My biggest complaints with Tesla other than Elon and their ravenous, cult-like fanbase are that the designs are boring as hell and the interiors feel like a corporate office park from the 2000s. I personally don’t think their fleet is aging gracefully at all and is a good case study in the risks of trying to be too cutting edge. The Model 3 and S looked incredible 5-10 years ago because they were new and fresh, but now they just look stayed to me.
They resemble bars of soap in various stages of use, and the SUVs look like diminishing bars of soap that swallowed an air hose. This does absolutely nothing to change my opinion. It’s a ridiculously boring car with an interior that’s a tech hell world that will make me feel the same type of vibe that sitting in a waiting room at a bougie doctor’s office or finishing up TPS reports at 7pm on a Friday in the exurbs would.
I am going to respectfully disagree. Clean, minimal designs age very gracefully. Busy, overstyled designs do not. The Mk4 VW GTI still looks good. The Mk5/6 do not.
I wouldn’t describe either of those as busy or overstyled?
They are, compared to the MK4 and Mk7
That makes the assumption they were good designs in the first place. The Chevy Celebrity was clean and minimal, but I’m not rushing out to put a picture of one on my wall.
Meh, extravagant coach built 1930s Delahayes and the like have aged beautifully, and 1970s VW Golfs and Passats and Fiat sedans just haven’t.
I mostly agree with you, though I would argue most 70s car designs are actually fine if you remove the massive bumpers. Most. Maybe ignore the front end of some of them and then they still look good.
Agree on the Model Y, certainly, it looks like a rubber mockup of the Model 3 that’s been overinflated and is close to popping. Their design language works decently for cars, but hasn’t translated well to crossovers
Yeah—the Model S was a genuinely sleek, attractive sedan when it first came out! I hated when they removed the grille, and hated the gradual leaning into the naked iPad interiors.
The interior design has been where things have suffered the worst—although the “just make it look like a Model 3/S that needs to fart” on the Y/X look is close behind. A big screen with trim around it in the original Model S looked fine. Cool, even. Futuristic. That interior was pretty cool, all things considered. The door pulls being integrated into a swooping trim piece was kind of inspired.
Meanwhile, this Model 3 with its new lack of dashboard trim and stalks screams “cost cutting” in the worst way. It looks like a penalty box. The only thing separating this bland-o-rama from an office cubicle is that no one has a drawer full of good snacks, and you probably shouldn’t eat snacks in the car anyway because THAT’S HOW YOU GET ANTS!
I love my 13 model S (pre-autopilot). As for the cool grill it was referred to a the nose cone, that alone sold me
“Nose cone” is a sweet term.
The lower front end makes the greenhouse seem a lot larger, almost SUV like
I agree. That low front end photo makes it look like a cartoon car with an absurdly short hood height and an exaggerated greenhouse height, like the hot wheels Tooned line.
Is this really what you intended to say? As in December 2024, 15 months from now? I understand that every Tesla promise should be questioned, but this looks like a pretty minor changeover.
with Tesla that might be accurate…?
Yeah, their whole company operates on a “when we get around to it” schedule
I think their company operates at quite a pace. I think the issue is that the people doing the announcements operate even faster.
I mean, they did announce the cybertruck 7 years ago.
Well if the article & possibly Tesla themselves are to be believed… despite the seemingly minor exterior & interior changes that we can see or not see as the case may be with our own eyes.
“50% of all the parts have been changed”
If that’s true and given it sounds like this revised model 3 is 1st being rolled out in China & Europe, I can certainly understand the revised model 3 for the US market not coming out until Q4 of 2024.
Especially for the US Market Tesla seems to be focused on getting the Cyber Truck per-production testing finished & then slowly ramping up production & initial roll out; Production for which is supposed to take place out of the Austin plant.
I would imagine Tesla wants to learn & iterate from what they learn from the revised model 3 China & European production changes before making the necessary model 3 line changes at Austin & at Freemount
As someone who lives somewhere that has a season where you wear gloves most of the time, capacitive touch turn signals are a hateful idea.
I mean they would be bad as buttons but as capacitive they’re just hateful. And the layout is stupid. Generally a bad design.
Otherwise, the sleeker-but-blander assessment is pretty spot on. Hopefully nobody copies the shit signal design.
I’m sure Elon has some dismissive quip for this valid complaint.
Well, you can buy capacitive gloves for using touch screens in the winter, but that doesn’t excuse what is still a terrible user interface design. Intuitive controls save lives, and this interior is reckless endangerment.
This refresh doesn’t look as good as the previous model, IMO, but if the aerodynamics are improved and it becomes less expensive to manufacture and/or repair, that tradeoff will be worth it.
to whom? Its coming with a price increase in the countries its being released in, so any cost savings sure sound like padding their margin back up, not passing along savings. But yeah, you do get an extra 9 miles or so of travel.
A marginal drag reduction will yield a marginal range increase.
I’d rather walk the last 9 miles to my destination than drive a car with capacitive buttons for turn signals. 😉
I very much despise the increasingly complicated and unserviceable tech in cars trend that Tesla is a pioneer of.
I’d rather convert an old car to EV than buy a Tesla. At least this way, everything is repairable and the car can be kept mostly analogue, which will compliment an EV drive system’s notoriously long maintenance-free service life nicely.
Here we are in complete agreement. I recently learned that most if not all Level 2 chargers installed in homes also require an internet connection. I have a problem with that. Why does pouring electricity in to my car need to tell the internet anything? My car, my electricity, so….
Yeah, I would much rather build an EV than buy one. by a huge margin.
It’s all about corporate datamining(and by proxy, government datamining).
Vested interests want control over your vehicle and by extension, you.
That being said, you can buy a 240V compatible charger and have a dryer outlet installed where you charge your vehicle, and bypass all of this nonsense. The DIY hobbyist market has a wide assortment to choose from of chargers, some without constant internet connectivity(you can connect to the internet on an optional basis with an ethrnet cable, or choose not to).
A good quality(but expensive) charger can be found here with the PFC series:
https://www.manzanitamicro.com/
These are commonly used for charging hobbyist-built electric cars at the race track.
They really need to hire someone who knows how to do car interiors.
I suspect it wouldn’t matter – Musk likes to stick his dick in every pie imaginable.
Take your like for the “American Pie” reference!
Some of their engineers know interiors, but they must stay within the bland overly minimal corporate design language. And some of their engineers only know specs, norms and numbers. The second set of engineers feels more like I’m dealing with accountants. It is a shame to see such talent wasted on blah cars for people who worship Elon and customers who could care less about cars.
I suspect everyone good can find better offers elsewhere.
It looks only slightly better than what was on that Crown Victoria from yesterday.
I like most of the changes, the dropping of the stalks is annoying.
Agree — most of the changes are good ones.