Driving Tesla’s Model three Switches Everything
If you’ve ever driven Tesla’s flagship vehicle—the $140,000 Model S P100D—you’ve experienced an unparalleled version of driving power. Zero to sixty in Two.Three seconds punches you back in the seat while making the tummy turn somersaults. Some people live for that feeling. I’m not one of them. 
Sure, driving a fully loaded electrified animal is as thrilling as the fiercest roller coaster—but not everyone wants their daily commute to be the Kingda Ka. After taking one of the very first drives of Tesla’s fresh Model three last week, I came away thinking that CEO Elon Musk has eventually delivered an electrical car for the everyday road tripper like me.
The Model three still has slew of pickup, effortlessly leaping from zero to sixty mph in Five.1 seconds in the upgraded version I test drove, which gets a stunning three hundred ten miles on a charge. It’s nimble, comfy, and has taut steering that’ll keep you grinning. The seats embrace you in a gentle hug that feels a bit more geared for road journey than racetrack. It’s the Model S on a diet, making up in practicality what it loses in extravagance. 
And I haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet. 
The fact that this car still looks, drives, and feels like a Tesla—at a kicking off price of $35,000—shows how far the Silicon Valley automaker has come. It’s still an expensive vehicle for many of Tesla’s fattest fans, and compelling options packages will haul a lot of open up spenders into awkward territory. But at current battery prices, Tesla is setting a fresh standard for value in an electrified car—which of course was Musk’s plan all along.
Step Inwards
The minute you treatment the Model Trio, you realize you’re in for a fresh sort of car practice. The auto’s elegant, flush door treats swivel into your palm with the light press of a thumb. The ethereal swoop of metal feels remarkably solid. 
The car doesn’t have a key, or a key fob. Instead it syncs to your phone through a bluetooth connection and will automatically unlock as you treatment. The backup in case your phone dies or you need to arm it off to a valet is a lean key card that you can keep in your wallet. Swipe it on the car’s B pile to unlock it, and place it on the center console to turn the car on. 
Stepping inwards the cabin, I quickly realized that my assumptions had been all wrong. I’ve seen a lot of spy shots of Model three prototypes online, and the interiors always appeared to be vapid, spartan, and lifeless. Not so. The lack of gauges on the narrow dash is refreshing. The solid de-robe of open-pore wood gives the space warmth, and the glass roof makes the the cabin feel like an atrium. The forward field of vision—uninterrupted by knobs, lights, and levers—is expansive. 
Tesla is getting better at building cars. Unlike early versions of the Model S and X, the Model three is built to be a daily driver, with slew of cupholders, door pockets, and console storage. The materials of the arm rests and doors feel ready for manhandle. And the stitched synthetic material used for the premium seats is different than leather, but not inferior. 
Shots Fired
BMW and Mercedes should be worried. This automobile is clearly targeting their market. Since Musk transferred over keys to the very first thirty cars on Friday, I’ve heard a lot of people attempting to compare the Model three to GM’s all-electric Chevy Bolt (known as the Opel Ampera-e in Europe). Albeit they’re similarly priced and both run on batteries, the parallel completes there. The Bolt is basically an economy gasoline car that’s been electrified; the Model three is, well, something altogether different. 
Tesla aims to sell 500,000 electrical cars next year. In order to succeed, it will have to rip down the artificial distinction inbetween a “car buyer” and an “electric-car buyer” and go straight at the heart of the $35,000 sedan class: the BMW three Series and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. The Model three is Musk’s missile aimed at this target.
“We ultimately have a fine, affordable, electrified car—that’s what this day means,” Musk said, when I asked how he was feeling about the launch. “I’m truly certain this will be the best car in this price range, mitts down. Judge for yourself.”
Two Battery Versions
The Model three comes in two battery types: standard and long range. In a break from the past, Tesla wouldn’t disclose the size of its two battery packs. Instead, going forward, the vehicles will be identified by the miles they can drive on a charge, and the cars will lose their exterior badges that indicate battery size and premium spectacle options. This way, Tesla will get more credit for the efficiency gains it squeezes out of its motors and design, instead of being judged by kilowatt hours alone. 
From the outside, a $35,000 Model three will look no different than a $57,000 fully loaded version. The company plans to make the same transition with its Model S and Model X platforms later. 
Here’s how the two versions break down:
- Price: $35,000 (not including government incentives one )
- Range: two hundred twenty miles (EPA estimated)
- Supercharging rate: one hundred thirty miles in thirty minutes
- Zero to sixty mph time: Five.6 seconds
- Price: $44,000 (not including government incentives)
- Range: three hundred ten miles
- Supercharging rate: one hundred seventy miles in thirty minutes (Same as Tesla’s Model S)
- Zero to sixty mph time: Five.1 seconds
The fatter battery is a gamechanger. Only one other electrical car in the world has violated the 300-mile range barrier: the most expensive version of Tesla’s Model S, an ultra-luxury car that starts at $97,500. The fresh Model three has won Tesla the trophy for cheapest range for the money, defeating the $37,500 Bolt, which is outclassed by the Model three in virtually every category.
Each year the battle for cheap range gets a little bit more intense, as this chart shows:
Another indicator of Tesla’s battery and efficiency improvements is its weight. It’s only one hundred fifty pounds more than the Mercedes C-Class, even however it’s actually a smidge fatter and has more passenger and trunk space. Five years ago that would’ve been unlikely.  
The Model three has a lot of room for a car its size, and the space is put to good use. With my gams fully extended in the passenger seat, a six-foot tall man still had room to sit cosily behind me. 
The car has the best storage room in its class—15 cubic feet divided inbetween the front and rear trunks. But for anyone hoping to use the Model three as their foot means of transportation, the largest hang-up might be the trunk’s opening. I brought a gauze measure with me, and the opening measured Legal.Five inches tall and forty two inches at its widest. That’s pretty standard for a puny sedan, which is to say, not good. Most Americans have grown habitual to larger SUVs and crossovers, and the utilitarian hatchback has been embraced by Europeans for ages. 
But let’s get back to the driving. As I hit a gently twisting road near Tesla’s factory, where the launch party for employees would later be held, I flipped on Tesla’s Autopilot. The road lanes were poorly marked, but the car had no problem sleekly tracking its course and slowing when traffic demanded it. This is the best Autopilot I’ve experienced since the company split with playmate Mobileye last year, however I didn’t have time to give it a decent vetting.  
Tesla made an interesting choice to add Autopilot to the car’s main shifter. Flick it down twice, and Autopilot engages. It feels more integrated with the regular flow of driving. Autopilot has come a long way in latest weeks, but still has a long way to go for Tesla to justify the $8,000 it’s been charging since October for Autopilot and a set of yet-unseen features called “Total Self-Driving Capability.”  
Ready for Camper Mode 
Last year I wrote about a subculture of Tesla drivers who go camping in the back of their cars. It sounds crazy at very first, but the car’s massive battery can maintain ideally managed climate all night while only losing about seven percent of the car’s range. With the glass canopy overhead and the view of the starlets, it’s a superb way to love national parks without the bother of a campsite. I attempted it myself and loved it.
With the fresh Model Three, there’s good news for those Tesla campers and others who like to haul long cargo. The seats of the Model three fold fully vapid, and with the front seats in their most forward position, the back bed measures an exceptional six feet nine inches long (206 cm). This is a car that’s dying to be slept in. 
However being able to camp in your car is joy, staying safe on the road is of significantly greater importance. Tesla aspires to be the world’s safest automaker, and the Model Trio is no exception. While the final safety scores by ratings agencies aren’t out yet, some of the evaluations have already been conducted. The movie below compares the side-impact test of the Model three against the Volvo S60, which is considered to be one of the safest cars on the road.
Observe a Tesla Model three vs. Volvo S60 side-pole influence test pic.twitter.com/dXBQkstrdo
“In the Model Three, you’re fine,” Musk said. Meantime, “the Volvo is packaged like a burrito around a decorate hanger. It’s not good.”
Despite all of these achievements in range, technology, and safety, Musk sounded grave about the road ahead. “The thickest challenge that we face here is ‘S Curve’ manufacturing,” he said, describing a ramp up of production that starts slow, then increases dramatically before tapering off. “That ‘S’ portion is us going through hell, basically.”
A Special Hell for Tesla
Musk reiterated his projections of a very slow embark in the next few months and then enhancing rapidly to a rate of 20,000 a month by the end of the year, and 50,000 a month by the end of 2018. It’s an aggressive schedule that would more than dual Tesla’s total production rate in six months, and then quintuple it by the end of next year. Musk alluded to this challenge at the launch event when he joked to a sea of cheering employees, “Welcome. Welcome to production hell.” 
In the last three weeks, Tesla built fifty Model 3s, according to Musk. Waiting behind those initial customers is a list of more than 500,000 deposits, at $1,000 each. Musk says people who put down deposits today won’t get their cars until late 2018.
Here’s his best guess for how the rest of two thousand seventeen will play out: 
The key obstacle, of course, is making all of these cars quickly enough and without the problems that plagued the launch of its more complicated Model X. Tesla is counting on everything going right at its car plant in Fremont, California, as well as its massive battery factory under construction near Reno, Nevada. Musk previously said that two to four fresh plant locations will be announced by the end of this year. 
The $35,000 standard Model three version won’t be available until Fall. The longer-range version is available now, beginning with the thousands of Tesla employees who placed reservations last year. A $Five,000 premium options package includes an all-glass roof, open-pore wood decor, premium sound, heated seats, and very first class seat materials. A dual-motor, all-wheel drive Model Three will be available in the Spring.  
I asked Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief designer responsible for the Models S, X, and Three, what are his beloved design elements of the Model Three. He didn't mention the kinks and angles, the elegant fold-in door treats, or the maximal use of space. 
Instead he talked about the “ambiance of the car”—the “beautiful, clean, minimalistic interior that will let you concentrate on the driving.” 
“The interior is nothing like any other car out there,” von Holzhausen said. “It’s amazingly advanced” and “will age gracefully.”
For a person who hasn’t seen the car, that’s very likely a vague and unsatisfying response. But after driving it, railing in it as a passenger, and climbing all over the backseat and trunk attempting to take its measure for a future camping journey, I indeed couldn’t have said it better myself.
Driving Tesla’s Model three Switches Everything
Driving Tesla’s Model three Switches Everything
If you’ve ever driven Tesla’s flagship vehicle—the $140,000 Model S P100D—you’ve experienced an unparalleled version of driving power. Zero to sixty in Two.Three seconds punches you back in the seat while making the tummy turn somersaults. Some people live for that feeling. I’m not one of them. 
Sure, driving a fully loaded electrified animal is as thrilling as the fiercest roller coaster—but not everyone wants their daily commute to be the Kingda Ka. After taking one of the very first drives of Tesla’s fresh Model three last week, I came away thinking that CEO Elon Musk has eventually delivered an electrified car for the everyday road tripper like me.
The Model three still has slew of pickup, effortlessly leaping from zero to sixty mph in Five.1 seconds in the upgraded version I test drove, which gets a stunning three hundred ten miles on a charge. It’s nimble, convenient, and has taut steering that’ll keep you grinning. The seats embrace you in a gentle hug that feels a bit more geared for road journey than racetrack. It’s the Model S on a diet, making up in practicality what it loses in extravagance. 
And I haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet. 
The fact that this car still looks, drives, and feels like a Tesla—at a kicking off price of $35,000—shows how far the Silicon Valley automaker has come. It’s still an expensive vehicle for many of Tesla’s thickest fans, and compelling options packages will haul a lot of open up spenders into awkward territory. But at current battery prices, Tesla is setting a fresh standard for value in an electrified car—which of course was Musk’s plan all along.
Step Inwards
The minute you treatment the Model Three, you realize you’re in for a fresh sort of car practice. The auto’s elegant, flush door treats swivel into your palm with the light press of a thumb. The ethereal swoop of metal feels remarkably solid. 
The car doesn’t have a key, or a key fob. Instead it syncs to your phone through a bluetooth connection and will automatically unlock as you treatment. The backup in case your phone dies or you need to palm it off to a valet is a lean key card that you can keep in your wallet. Swipe it on the car’s B pile to unlock it, and place it on the center console to turn the car on. 
Stepping inwards the cabin, I quickly realized that my assumptions had been all wrong. I’ve seen a lot of spy shots of Model three prototypes online, and the interiors always appeared to be plane, spartan, and lifeless. Not so. The lack of gauges on the narrow dash is refreshing. The solid unclothe of open-pore wood gives the space warmth, and the glass roof makes the the cabin feel like an atrium. The forward field of vision—uninterrupted by knobs, lights, and levers—is expansive. 
Tesla is getting better at building cars. Unlike early versions of the Model S and X, the Model three is built to be a daily driver, with slew of cupholders, door pockets, and console storage. The materials of the arm rests and doors feel ready for manhandle. And the stitched synthetic material used for the premium seats is different than leather, but not inferior. 
Shots Fired
BMW and Mercedes should be worried. This automobile is clearly targeting their market. Since Musk transferred over keys to the very first thirty cars on Friday, I’ve heard a lot of people attempting to compare the Model three to GM’s all-electric Chevy Bolt (known as the Opel Ampera-e in Europe). Albeit they’re similarly priced and both run on batteries, the parallel finishes there. The Bolt is basically an economy gasoline car that’s been electrified; the Model three is, well, something altogether different. 
Tesla aims to sell 500,000 electrical cars next year. In order to succeed, it will have to rip down the artificial distinction inbetween a “car buyer” and an “electric-car buyer” and go straight at the heart of the $35,000 sedan class: the BMW three Series and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. The Model three is Musk’s missile aimed at this target.
“We eventually have a excellent, affordable, electrified car—that’s what this day means,” Musk said, when I asked how he was feeling about the launch. “I’m indeed certain this will be the best car in this price range, forearms down. Judge for yourself.”
Two Battery Versions
The Model three comes in two battery types: standard and long range. In a break from the past, Tesla wouldn’t disclose the size of its two battery packs. Instead, going forward, the vehicles will be identified by the miles they can drive on a charge, and the cars will lose their exterior badges that indicate battery size and premium spectacle options. This way, Tesla will get more credit for the efficiency gains it squeezes out of its motors and design, instead of being judged by kilowatt hours alone. 
From the outside, a $35,000 Model three will look no different than a $57,000 fully loaded version. The company plans to make the same transition with its Model S and Model X platforms later. 
Here’s how the two versions break down:
- Price: $35,000 (not including government incentives one )
- Range: two hundred twenty miles (EPA estimated)
- Supercharging rate: one hundred thirty miles in thirty minutes
- Zero to sixty mph time: Five.6 seconds
- Price: $44,000 (not including government incentives)
- Range: three hundred ten miles
- Supercharging rate: one hundred seventy miles in thirty minutes (Same as Tesla’s Model S)
- Zero to sixty mph time: Five.1 seconds
The thicker battery is a gamechanger. Only one other electrified car in the world has violated the 300-mile range barrier: the most expensive version of Tesla’s Model S, an ultra-luxury car that starts at $97,500. The fresh Model three has won Tesla the trophy for cheapest range for the money, defeating the $37,500 Bolt, which is outclassed by the Model three in virtually every category.
Each year the battle for cheap range gets a little bit more intense, as this chart shows:
Another indicator of Tesla’s battery and efficiency improvements is its weight. It’s only one hundred fifty pounds more than the Mercedes C-Class, even tho’ it’s actually a smidge fatter and has more passenger and trunk space. Five years ago that would’ve been unlikely.  
The Model three has a lot of room for a car its size, and the space is put to good use. With my gams fully extended in the passenger seat, a six-foot tall man still had room to sit cosily behind me. 
The car has the best storage room in its class—15 cubic feet divided inbetween the front and rear trunks. But for anyone hoping to use the Model three as their foot means of transportation, the fattest hang-up might be the trunk’s opening. I brought a gauze measure with me, and the opening measured Eighteen.Five inches tall and forty two inches at its widest. That’s pretty standard for a petite sedan, which is to say, not good. Most Americans have grown familiar to larger SUVs and crossovers, and the utilitarian hatchback has been embraced by Europeans for ages. 
But let’s get back to the driving. As I hit a gently twisting road near Tesla’s factory, where the launch party for employees would later be held, I flipped on Tesla’s Autopilot. The road lanes were poorly marked, but the car had no problem slickly tracking its course and slowing when traffic demanded it. This is the best Autopilot I’ve experienced since the company split with playmate Mobileye last year, however I didn’t have time to give it a decent vetting.  
Tesla made an interesting choice to add Autopilot to the car’s main shifter. Flick it down twice, and Autopilot engages. It feels more integrated with the regular flow of driving. Autopilot has come a long way in latest weeks, but still has a long way to go for Tesla to justify the $8,000 it’s been charging since October for Autopilot and a set of yet-unseen features called “Utter Self-Driving Capability.”  
Ready for Camper Mode 
Last year I wrote about a subculture of Tesla drivers who go camping in the back of their cars. It sounds crazy at very first, but the car’s massive battery can maintain flawlessly managed climate all night while only losing about seven percent of the car’s range. With the glass canopy overhead and the view of the starlets, it’s a good way to love national parks without the bother of a campsite. I attempted it myself and loved it.
With the fresh Model Three, there’s excellent news for those Tesla campers and others who like to haul long cargo. The seats of the Model three fold downright vapid, and with the front seats in their most forward position, the back bed measures an astounding six feet nine inches long (206 cm). This is a car that’s dying to be slept in. 
However being able to camp in your car is joy, staying safe on the road is of significantly greater importance. Tesla aspires to be the world’s safest automaker, and the Model Three is no exception. While the final safety scores by ratings agencies aren’t out yet, some of the evaluations have already been conducted. The movie below compares the side-impact test of the Model three against the Volvo S60, which is considered to be one of the safest cars on the road.
Witness a Tesla Model three vs. Volvo S60 side-pole influence test pic.twitter.com/dXBQkstrdo
“In the Model Three, you’re fine,” Musk said. Meantime, “the Volvo is packaged like a burrito around a decorate hanger. It’s not good.”
Despite all of these achievements in range, technology, and safety, Musk sounded grave about the road ahead. “The thickest challenge that we face here is ‘S Curve’ manufacturing,” he said, describing a ramp up of production that starts slow, then increases dramatically before tapering off. “That ‘S’ portion is us going through hell, basically.”
A Special Hell for Tesla
Musk reiterated his projections of a very slow begin in the next few months and then enlargening rapidly to a rate of 20,000 a month by the end of the year, and 50,000 a month by the end of 2018. It’s an aggressive schedule that would more than dual Tesla’s total production rate in six months, and then quintuple it by the end of next year. Musk alluded to this challenge at the launch event when he joked to a sea of cheering employees, “Welcome. Welcome to production hell.” 
In the last three weeks, Tesla built fifty Model 3s, according to Musk. Waiting behind those initial customers is a list of more than 500,000 deposits, at $1,000 each. Musk says people who put down deposits today won’t get their cars until late 2018.
Here’s his best guess for how the rest of two thousand seventeen will play out: 
The key obstacle, of course, is making all of these cars quickly enough and without the problems that plagued the launch of its more complicated Model X. Tesla is counting on everything going right at its car plant in Fremont, California, as well as its massive battery factory under construction near Reno, Nevada. Musk previously said that two to four fresh plant locations will be announced by the end of this year. 
The $35,000 standard Model three version won’t be available until Fall. The longer-range version is available now, beginning with the thousands of Tesla employees who placed reservations last year. A $Five,000 premium options package includes an all-glass roof, open-pore wood decor, premium sound, heated seats, and very first class seat materials. A dual-motor, all-wheel drive Model Three will be available in the Spring.  
I asked Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief designer responsible for the Models S, X, and Three, what are his beloved design elements of the Model Trio. He didn't mention the kinks and angles, the elegant fold-in door treats, or the maximal use of space. 
Instead he talked about the “ambiance of the car”—the “beautiful, clean, minimalistic interior that will let you concentrate on the driving.” 
“The interior is nothing like any other car out there,” von Holzhausen said. “It’s exceptionally advanced” and “will age gracefully.”
For a person who hasn’t seen the car, that’s most likely a vague and unsatisfying reaction. But after driving it, railing in it as a passenger, and climbing all over the backseat and trunk attempting to take its measure for a future camping excursion, I indeed couldn’t have said it better myself.
