This is the new second-generation
Tesla Model 3 Performance.
Or, Tesla's BMW M3 killer if you deal
exclusively in sensationalist headlines.
In this video, I'm going to tell you what it's like to drive,
I'm going to tell you about all the bits that Tesla's
changed on the car, but before that,
I think we need to do the obligatory EV thing
and find a quiet, straight section of road,
come to a standstill and boot it.
Right, this will do.
Foot on the brake. Foot on the throttle.
I'm honestly… I'm running out of ways to
describe what brutal, instant torque acceleration feels like.
But, yeah, it's quick.
And, yeah, that is quite a lot of fun.
The weird thing is, this car isn't even one
of the very fastest EVs.
You've got stuff like the Taycan Turbo GT,
the Model S Plaid which, you know,
this wouldn't see which way those cars went.
When you select your acceleration mode,
how extreme you want your throttle response to be,
the top mode is Insane.
That's what it's called, Insane.
And I think they're overstating it a bit.
This car is merely… outrageously fast.
Power is now 503bhp. Torque is 547lb ft.
That's up from 444hp and
471lb ft in the old one.
The 0 to 60mph time drops from 3.3 to 2.9
and top speed is 163mph.
Range is still to be confirmed,
but with the dual-motor long-range model
at 391 miles, think comfortably over 350.
Prices in the UK start from £55,990.
Speak to any number of senior Tesla
employees quietly in the corner and
they'll all say pretty much the same thing.
That the last generation Model 3 Performance
was a bit of a missed opportunity,
a little bit of a pulled punch,
but there's good reason for that.
It's because, at the time that
car was developed, Tesla was going
through its very well-publicised production hell period
and the manufacturing boss at the time,
a certain Mr Elon Musk,
was implicit that he didn't want
any more complexity in the cars and so
the Model 3 Performance suffered.
So this, supposedly, is the go-faster Model 3
that they always wanted to produce.
So let's take a look at the changes,
shall we, starting with the styling.
And I've just come out of a media
briefing up the road and there
was a moment when the design boss Franz
threw the covers off the car
and I think he was expecting a round of applause,
but he was met with a silent room.
And that's not to say it's not a good job
or it's an ugly car,
it's just that it looks, well, quite similar
to the standard one, doesn't it?
But there are changes.
So you've got this lower nose,
these slimmer headlights that you get
on the standard Model 3, but this entire
lower fascia, that is all new.
So you've got these
air curtains here that help channel the air,
smooth it down the side of the car.
You've got a redesigned front splitter, which helps
optimise lift, which means
it provides a little bit of downforce.
A very little bit of downforce,
just by looking at it.
Come and have a look at the wheels here.
These very muddy wheels.
Obviously, someone's been playing around
in a dirty lay-by. Not us.
We wouldn't do that. So what do we have?
20in wheels. They're staggered,
so you've got wider wheels at the back now than at the front.
They're forged aluminium. You've got
these aero caps that can snap in
and snap out between the spokes,
Pirelli P Zero tyres. You've got upgraded brakes.
So the brake calipers – you used to have
to order the track pack
on the old Model 3 Performance
to get these semi-metallic calipers.
Now you get them as standard.
This is the first Model 3
to get adaptive dampers as well.
Come round the back.
Not a whole lot to report here,
but a couple more things to show you here.
The first is this carbon boot-lip spoiler
and the second is a very confusing badge.
This one here.
Now it looks like a Plaid badge, doesn't it?
It's been confusing the internet with
spy photographers who were convinced that
this was going to be a Model 3 Plaid.
But, no, it's subtly different to the Plaid badge.
This is a Performance badge, apparently.
If you want the Plaid badge in Tesla land,
you need three motors
and they need to be carbon sleeve motors.
Which is why the tri-motor Cybertruck,
known as the Cyberbeast, doesn't get Plaid designation
because it doesn't have the carbon sleeve motors.
There's a bit of pub ammo for you.
Right, shall we have a look inside?
OK, inside the new Model 3 Performance
it is pretty much identical to the standard Model 3.
Apart from two very important things.
The first is you get aluminium pedals,
which makes no difference whatsoever,
and the second actually does make a difference.
It's these new Performance seats.
A big complaint about Model 3s of old was the seats.
You didn't really have any support,
you slid about everywhere.
These have some proper bolstering to them,
but they're not uncomfortable.
They're still very squidgy. Nicely judged,
I'd say, for the type of car that this Model 3 Performance is.
So the big question is whether this
car is actually fun to drive.
Is it better to drive than its predecessor?
But, more importantly, is it better to drive
than the standard cars in the range?
Because if it isn't, then you might
as well save your money and get a
dual-motor or a rear-wheel-drive Model 3.
And there's only one way to answer that question,
and it's to, well, to go for a drive.
So, come on, close that door.
Unfortunately, we shan't be
driving it on track today,
just the canyon roads above Malibu.
So we won't be smoking through a set of tyres.
Peeling back that dynamic layer,
will have to wait for another day.
The last generation Tesla Model 3 Performance
had a bit of a reputation for being twitchy on the limit.
And I can confirm this is true
because I got to experience it first-hand.
Four or five years ago,
we did a test with that car against the old M3
at Thunderhill Raceway and it spat me off the track.
Yeah, not good.
But that's not going to happen today because straight off the bat,
you can feel that this car feels a lot
more stable, it's a lot grippier,
there's less body roll.
The suspension movements are much
more controlled. When you go around
a sweeping corner like this one,
there's less bounce on the outside suspension and more carve.
Right, I'm going to go through the driving modes
if I can jab the screen without crashing this thing.
Because that will bring up all
the topics that we need to talk about
with this car's dynamics.
So I'm going to hit the button called Dynamics.
Acceleration, so you have three modes –
Chill, Standard and Insane.
I'm in Insane because that's the way I roll.
Then you've got ride and handling – Standard and Sport.
Now I like the fact that you've only got two modes
for this because that's how
we use our cars, isn't it?
You're either in one of two moods.
You either need it to be as comfortable
as possible because you just want to relax
and get somewhere in one piece.
Or a nice road opens up in front of you
and you want to give it a little bit of a poke.
And because there's only two modes,
they're controlling the adaptive dampers,
there's a nice bit of gap between them,
you can feel a real tangible difference
when you switch between the two.
I'm going to hit it into Sport right now.
And then you've got steering mode –
Comfort, Standard and Sport.
Basically, it adds more weight
as you go up the scale.
Weirdly, I prefer the Comfort mode,
which is the lightest steering setting.
According to Tesla, that shouldn't be the case.
Comfort should be for when you're chilling out
and cruising around. But personally,
I feel like it gives the car more agility,
it makes the steering ratio feel a bit more direct.
So maybe they need to have a little rethink of the naming strategy.
Down at the bottom of this menu here,
you've got something called Slip Start.
So that turns off the traction control at low speeds
so you can do really quite
childish getaways from gravelly lay-bys.
And then you've got the big news,
which is a new track mode.
So if I hit this button that says "Customise",
we go into our track mode settings.
And the idea here,
apart from the fact that Tesla said in no uncertain terms
you should only be using this mode on track,
you have a slider.
So on one side it says "Understeer"
and on the other side it says "Oversteer".
The idea being that you can
select what you want the overall
characteristics of the car to be.
This isn't a slider that's
sending all the power to the front wheels
or all the power to the rear wheels.
It's just controlling the character of the car.
And then underneath that you've got Stability Assist.
So you can have Reduced Stability Assist,
which still uses brakes to keep you in line.
You've got Minimal Stability Assist,
which gets rid of that brake assistance.
And then you've got Off.
Off isn't completely off
because an electric car with this much
power and torque and zero traction control and stability control
would just be a bit silly.
You could effectively spin up the wheels to maximum speed
on a low-grip surface in one go.
But it does control how much assistance you've got.
I'm not going to be bunging big fat driftos
around on this public road today.
There's some very hard, unyielding rock surfaces over there.
So we need to get this car on a track
to really explore those modes.
But there is plenty to play with.
The big question then – is it fun?
Yeah, it is actually.
You could punt it along a road like this
at absurd speeds, but you still have the
limitations that come with all performance EVs.
Namely, there are no gears to play with,
it makes no noise, and weight.
So this car weighs quite a bit over 1,800kg
and you just can't escape that mass.
In fact, I actually think Tesla
has done quite a good job at
exercising some willpower and resisting making this car
more extreme than it needs to be.
Try and chasing that hardcore, super
stiff track car for the road kind of vibe,
because honestly, this is about as far as you want
to push it before it starts to
become annoying to use every day.
Right now, this is a really good
daily driver that has a bit of a
naughty side when the moment takes you.
So is this a better car than the previous gen Model 3 Performance?
Big yes.
Is it more fun to drive down a
good road than the standard Model 3?
Also yes.
Is it a BMW M3 killer?
No. No, it's not.
But I'll tell you what it is.
It is fantastic bang for your buck.
When you consider this is £55,000,
you've got over 500hp,
you've now got a properly sorted chassis.
And an M3, you can spec one of those up to almost £100,000.
So this... This is pretty good value.
If I'm honest, I'm slightly disappointed
that Tesla didn't try some more bits to
increase driver engagement.
Stuff like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N's fake gear shifts
and simulated soundtrack. But, hey, this is
the sensible fast Tesla.
They must be saving all the party tricks
for the Roadster.