At long last, Tesla has unveiled the new design and features of its Model 3 refresh (also known as "Project Highland") that has had Tesla fans feverishly speculating on the internet for months.
The refresh includes several elements that fans predicted and a few that they did not see coming. According to reporting from Electrek, Tesla claims that more than half of the parts in the Model 3 are being replaced, although the electric vehicle company did not provide any metric to support that claim.
The refreshed Model 3 will feature a new front end designed to look sleeker with narrower, more "aggressive-looking" headlights.
It will also have a longer range — Tesla claims that the Standard Range Model 3 will have a range of around 300 miles, and the Long Range version will be around 370 miles. However, as Tesla has been found to have lied about the ranges of its cars in the past, these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.
The most significant changes are in the car's interior. The refreshed Model 3 will sport a new rear 8-inch touch screen, allowing passengers control over the climate and lighting, as well as ventilated front seats, more speakers (up to 17 from 14), customizable interior ambient lighting, a larger rear trunk, and more.
The most controversial new element seems to be the removal of the steering column stalks, which have been replaced with turn signal buttons on the left side of the steering wheel, with the gear selector being moved to the touch screen.
Electrek's Jameson Dow wrote, "I personally love most of the changes, but am not a fan of the new steering wheel … I'm sure it would be fine after getting used to it, but turn signal stalks are just so convenient and familiar, and I don't like the change to buttons."
Electrek's commenters seemed almost uniformly to agree with this take.
"The turn signal and gear selector stalks were one of the BIG things I preferred in the 3 and Y vs the S. Huge, huge mistake removing them. It may sound trivial to some, but it's enough to keep me from buying one. Period. More physical controls are needed, not less. Bad direction to head," wrote one commenter.
"Nice looking but deleting more physical controls especially turn indicator stalks seem crazy. How do you indicate half way around a roundabout? No parking sensors either,'" wrote another.
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