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This is the early review of the Tesla Model 3.
Now, we tested this car back in 2018 when it first came out.
But what you're really looking at
is Tesla fighting back against the recent EV competition
with significant upgrades to one of its most important models.
We bought a 2024 Tesla Model 3 long-range all-wheel drive.
Now, the MSRP on this car is $35,000,
but that's for the rear-wheel drive version with the smaller
battery.
So adding all-wheel drive and the larger battery
was an additional $10,990.
The white pearl paint was an extra $1,000.
And, of course, we bought the full self-driving software,
which cost $12,000.
So, after the destination fee and what Tesla
calls a order fee, we paid a grand total of $60,630.
And we picked this Model 3 up from the Tesla showroom
inside of the Mohegan Sun Casino here in Connecticut.
Historically, Tesla has made small improvements
and incremental changes to their models year after year.
But they haven't done a significant refresh.
That's not really their style.
But what we have behind us is really
a larger update with a lot of hardware changes
that reflects more of a traditional refresh
that you might see from a larger legacy automaker.
At a high level, the new Model 3 gets an updated look
on the exterior with new bumpers and new styling.
The chassis has been retuned to supposedly increase
the ride quality.
And it's supposed to be quieter too.
The interior has also been completely redesigned
with new controls and new storage places.
And it also has a new blind spot warning indicator.
So I spent a lot of time with the new Model 3
to see if all these changes go far enough.
At its core, this is still the Model 3
we know and love in terms of the overall concept, the layout,
the structure, and the dimensions.
It hasn't grown in size.
It has 394 horsepower from two electric motors
with a one-speed direct drive and all-wheel drive.
I find it really interesting that they're still
using an induction motor on the front axle
and a permanent magnet synchronous motor
on the rear, which is really just to balance efficiency,
power, and traction.
It has 341 miles of range according to the EPA.
And, amazingly, it gets 3.9 miles per kilowatt
hour according to the EPA, which is really high.
And, of course, we'll do our own highway range tests
like we do with all our EVs.
It has a 250-kilowatt max DC charge
rate which, according to Tesla, adds about 175 miles of range
in 15 minutes of charging.
In terms of level two charging, it can charge at 11.5 kilowatt.
That equates to about 40 miles of range per hour
when you're charging at home.
So let's dive into all of these changes.
And the first one we'll talk about is the new styling.
Now, I think they were really smart to update
the styling on the Model 3 to really differentiate it
from all the other Model 3s that are on the road.
So what we have here are new headlights and a completely new
front bumper design.
And if you look at the old car side by side,
you'll see it kind of has the outline
of a grille that a traditional car would have.
And they pretty much got rid of all that.
And I think it makes it look a lot more seamless and a lot more
sleek.
And the new headlights are slimmer
and make it look a little bit more aggressive as well.
Next, let's talk about the new suspension tuning.
So they softened it.
And now, to me, it feels more BMW-like, a lot less rigid,
and way less jittery over bumps.
One area that the Tesla Model 3 really needed some help
was in terms of interior noise.
It was pretty loud.
So Tesla put in a lot of work to quiet the interior down,
and I'd say they were pretty successful.
It's still a really minimalistic design in here.
It's all very simple.
But the materials that they're using
are better and do feel more premium.
I think a great example of that is this large piece of suede
that's on the door, and it wraps up into the dash.
And, personally, I think the LED light
strip, the ambient light strip that goes from the door
and wraps all the way up onto the dash is a really cool touch.
And it's really cool at night because there's no gauge
cluster in front of you.
And so, you just get this really futuristic feel
with the lighting.
Another change that comes along with the new interior design
are all the new storage locations and the completely
redesigned center console.
You just have these simple easy-to-use doors
that open up to the cup holder and a deep storage bin here.
And, of course, the easily accessible dual wireless
charging pads.
But it's not all perfect by any means.
When we took delivery of the car,
the a-pillar trim is falling off.
And I have the floor mat in the back seat
because every time I get out of this car it gets
stuck to my shoes because they're only holding it
to the floor with these tiny pieces of Velcro.
Finally, Tesla has added a proper blind spot warning
indicator.
They've, for the longest time, had a camera view that shows up
in the center screen, which is fine,
but it doesn't actually have a symbol or light
in the mirror like most cars.
So they added one.
But it feels like the least amount of effort
was put into it as possible.
So it's basically just a small dim red led
that's somewhere behind the speaker grille.
And the problem is, I don't know where
to look for it until it's already on,
so it's really easy to miss.
And there's one last big change to the Model 3
that I can't forget to talk about, and that's the controls.
So, first, they got rid of the stalks
behind the steering wheel for turn signals
and for selecting the gear.
And so, what that means is now I have buttons
on the steering wheel for my turn signals,
among other controls.
But the turn signals here on the left
are not the most convenient thing to use.
When the driving situation gets a little bit more chaotic
or I have to make a quick maneuver,
this is the first thing I'm going
to ignore because I have to look down,
and the turn signals might be in a different position
because I have the steering wheel turned.
That's when I'm going to forget it
and I'm not going to use a turn signal.
And since they got rid of the other stalk
on the right side, which used to be the gear selector,
they now moved it to the center screen.
And that's pretty tricky to use.
You have to slide your finger up and down,
press the button for park, and it's just not
as tactile and easy to use as a gear selector on the stalk.
And what's really strange is if you don't want to use the gear
selector on the touchscreen, they basically
provided a fail-safe up here on the ceiling.
There are actually PRND buttons hidden
inside of the interior light switch panel up here
on the roof.
They added this display to the back of the rear console.
And there's actually a lot of stuff in here.
And I think the fact that you can
adjust the climate and the heated seats, that's all good.
But you can also watch movies, and Netflix,
and play video games.
And, personally, I just don't really
see myself using this because it's so low and so far away
from the seating position that I'd probably just rather use
my phone.
With all these changes, I don't really
anticipate the usability score of this car going up.
But, of course, we will do a full usability analysis,
so check back for those results.
Here's something that hasn't changed about the Model 3
but it still bothers me.
These door handles are designed to be opened by one hand
only with the left hand.
But if I open it with my right hand,
it's just a lot more awkward to grab it.
We did by Tesla's very controversial
full self-driving software, which
we think has a misleading name.
And what makes it so controversial
is that you can basically drive hands-free
in a wide variety of situations.
So, by having the software, we'll
be able to try it out and keep an eye on any updates
and changes that come throughout the life of the car
while we own it.
There are a lot of significant changes
to the Model 3, some for the better, and some
seemingly for the worse.
But, no doubt, they will have an impact on our testing.
So check back with us soon on cr.org for the final results
of the Model 3.
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