Tesla tends to play by their own rules, and one of the mainstream automaker rules they’ve been quite good at ignoring is the rule about regular, even frequent styling updates. We cool kids in the biz tend to call these “facelifts” or “mid-cycle refreshes” and it’s when a carmaker makes some minor tweaks, usually to easily swappable parts like bumper skins and lighting equipment, to update the look of their cars. Tesla has only really done this in a significant way once so far, when the Model S got a new face in 2016. There’s been minor tweaks since then, but that’s the major one. Now it looks like the lower-priced and Tesla best-seller Model 3 is getting a chance for a new face, the first real visual update since the car was released in 2017.
The re-designed Model 3 was spotted during testing, and photos taken with a car cover pulled back, revealing the front end of the car. These pictures, shared by a redditor named ffiarpg, showed up on Reddit forms and via tweets:
Looks like the first leaked photo of the redesigned Project Highland Tesla Model 3.
— Drive Tesla 🇨🇦 (@DriveTeslaca) April 13, 2023
The one new, subtle design feature on this car that makes us know it’s real is the side repeater that flows into the door, as seen on the Highland Model 3 spotted by @klwtts. The current side… pic.twitter.com/3jW8ExB7IB
The “Project Highland” mentioned there refers to the term Tesla has been using for a re-vamped Model 3. The major changes seem to be to the headlamp units, front bumper skin, front fenders, and side mirrors, which do add up to a quite different look for the front end:
There’s also some evidence of cost-cutting going on, too. There are no longer separate foglamp units in the bumper – it’s possible the new headlamp units will incorporate them – and ultrasonic sensors look to be gone, too. The hood sheetmetal appears unchanged, but the fenders will need to be new to accommodate the new headlamp shape. Based on the cutlines, I think the bumper skin section is now larger than before, saving perhaps on some fender aluminum, and I can’t see a front-mounted camera anywhere.
The side camera/indicator repeater unit on the front fender looks to have been relocated a bit and redesigned as well.
Overall, I think the new front end looks pretty good, quite clean and sleek, though I’ll admit I always did like the Model 3’s face because it reminded me of what a modernized version of a Renault Floride may have looked like:
You see it, don’t you? Of course you do.
Based on the camouflage seen on other test cars, the rear end will likely be updated as well, though that has yet to be uncovered. Speaking of uncovered, all the squished bugs on the face of this car do suggest it had been driving without camo, which is interesting.
An interior update of some kind is likely as well; there’s no actual pictures of that yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Tesla, of course, never talks to any press about anything, and they likely wouldn’t even comment if they did, so while this seems a likely Model 3 facelift, we can’t say for absolute certain.
Anyway, Renault, you’re now clear to make a modern Floride, I suppose.
It’s…different, I guess. I agree it got rid of the “not-a-grille” look, but it really looks like a generic TV ad car. Nothing about it is bad, I was just hoping for a little more expressive look.
Looks a bit generic, but I’m sure they’re aiming to push as much product as possible. I’m 80% sure those headlamps are the same as on the model s, another optimization to just put out a bazillion teslas as cheap as they can.
My dad, who is assuredly not a fan of EVs and will never be in the market for one, inexplicably loves the look of Teslas. I don’t understand it, and I’m sure he’d like this look, too, since it still very much looks like a Tesla. Though maybe not, since I think he likes that Teslas look more sleek than aggressive and this has leaned into the more aggressive look. He also thinks they look best in white, which works out pretty well with that being the default color.
Personally, I am sick of seeing white Teslas.
I see a lot of the promised Tesla Roadster there…
I actually like it, but it is interesting that they are now leaning into a design language that came out in 2017. Many were expecting that they Roadster would be substantially different when (if) it comes out, since it has been already so long and the Cybertruck was such a departure.
https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/tesla-roadster-production-release-candidate-1024×594.jpg
Better, but still not good.
Completely agree, just because a car doesn’t need a grill, doesn’t mean it looks good without something there to break up the lines
I was hoping for a stylized ‘T’ like on the front of the S and X.
meh.
Hm. Apparently Musk has been too busy at Twitter to force Tesla into using only touch sensors for self-driving.
I dig the new front end. It no longer looks like there was a real grille that got covered up with plastic.
Looks like Elon Wonka and his Oompa Loompas are still at it. Can’t help it; whenever I picture Tesla, all I can think of is “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
From what I understand, Willy Wonka’s factory is safer than Elon’s
If we’re rating looks: The Floride, red fuel truck, George Foreman Grill, and the Tesla Regal.
It’s a tesla 200, inspired by the best chrysler success
Looks a lot cleaner – and no longer appears as if they designed a spot for a grill-like applique, but then forgot to apply it.
certainly looks cleaner and cheap to make happen.
So the 3 face no longer looks like a Plymouth/Dodge Neon? That’s an improvement.
I think I read that foglamps in general were going away, essentially the already too bright in many cases LED head lights don’t require them, so going LED across the board made some fiscal sense.
They better do something because that new prius is a knockout.
I like the new front end more than the old, but that’s faint praise since I’ve always found the styling of the Model 3 inoffensively bland. Now that the EV competition is heating up, I can’t help but feel that Tesla needs to start trying to style some excitement into their cars – especially in the interiors.
I have always felt the same way. The Model S always looked like one of those cars advertisers “de-branded” for an ad so they didn’t have to pay royalties.
I swear, the more authoritarian these billionaires get, the more like communist East Germany things feel like…
Elon is going all nutso on social media like some self-aggrandizing figurehead out to save the world, but when it really comes down to it, he just flogs his workers harder to conform to his worldview and to show ‘progress’. Things like “improving the product” face an uphill battle, because its resources being spent on something that’s doing just fine for now.
Compare that to the Trabant’s development in East Germany: Originally developed in the 50s, arguably East Germany’s best chance at succeeding as a communist country. A good chunk of the population had a bit of post-war excitement and it seemed like the country was getting up on its feet. They didn’t have much, but they were determined to be innovative and they came up with the Trabant as an entry level car, which for its time, wasn’t a bad solution, given all the constraints.
Over the years, the communist leaders got more oppressive and controlling, and technological innovation was set aside for “its good enough” in the interest of taking the profit now (to show how the 5-year plan is succeeding) rather than investing in the future. As a result, despite many attempts to improve and refine the Trabant, it was pretty much the same car in the late 80s when the country finally gave up the communist ghost.
Never mind the Renault Floride in the foreground, which when I think about it shouldn’t be so close to an airliner on an active tarmac, but what is the dude on the ladder doing in the nose of the airliner? The Renault Floride photo raises questions!
That’s what I think about the Model 3 alleged refresh.
Looks like he’s servicing the weather radar. That Caravelle won’t be going anywhere soon, so I’m not sure why they need the stairs and fuel truck.
Jason should have saved that photo for a cold start.
Floride Man is at it again!
I don’t really like the current 3. I eventually decided the front end looked like Janice from the Muppets and now I can’t un-see it. I like the new design. It’s reasonably simply and restrained. Not over designed like the ever in”crease”ing details on the BMW pig snout or the Lexus predator mouth. Maybe the designer got to do what they wanted while Elon burns Titter* to the ground.
*Not a typo
The TESLA is a car that just looks ugly as dog shit to me. And in my neck of the woods the only thing more dangerous than a BMW driver is a TESLA turd driver. But am glad Elon is cutting costs. Not.
I’ve seen this is in a few places now…highly doubt I’d even realize it was different if I saw one out in the world.
I wonder when the age of their lineup is going to catch up with them?
Not too soon. Even with the competition coming out, we’re at least a few years from Teslas being significantly behind any other comparable car.
I think they’d do more good by addressing the early 2000s Ikea office park interiors or booting Elon to Mars, but hey…it’s something, I guess?
the question really is if Elon went away, would Tesla survive. I am mystified by the Elons, Jobs, and even Besos, to an extent, cult like following of these bozos.
I mean simply put they’re sociopaths. No one gets to that level of wealth and power by being an altruist. It takes extreme selfishness, not to mention a total disregard for humanity at best and an outright disdain for it at worst. I don’t actually think that Musk et al are even particularly remarkable when it comes to intelligence…I think they’re remarkable when it comes to being salespeople and opportunists.
Musk hasn’t done or invented shit…he’s just an objectively brilliant investor who has been ahead of the curve in a few extremely opportunistic places. Some would call it genius, some would call it luck, I’ve always seen it maybe 10/90 when it comes to this particular class of lizard people. I don’t think Musk, Bezos, Zucc, etc. did anything particularly mind blowing…I think they cashed in some inherent privilege they all had (Bezos’ and Gates’ parents threw them piles of cash to get started with, Musk had his dad’s apartheid money, etc.) to get in on the second floor of something that already existed and rode the gravy train.
All societies do this, but the US in particular shows an absurd amount of reverence towards the wealthy. These people are treated like demigods by our society and the press and their alleged genius gets blown way out of proportion. Then they start to believe their own bullshit and it all starts imploding. Look at how Meta is circling the drain. Things at Tesla have been looking worse for a while now and Musk’s takeover of Twitter has been an abject disaster. At least Bezos seems to be smart enough to realize he got extremely lucky and is more or less fucking off rather than trying to present himself as some sort of genius savior type.
Wow this got out of hand. Anyway all billionaires can rot and the fact that our society is so broken that it allows these sorts of whackos to exist unchecked is an indictment of how far we’ve fallen.
I recommend the last podcast from farah, with ed zitron. Really interesting and fun.
I like Farrah a lot. He’s up there with Mark and Jack as far as car reviewers whose opinions I’ll pretty much trust no questions asked are concerned.
I’m getting “generic car on a bottle of car wash soap” vibe from the new design.
Pretty generic really. Maybe Tesla is trying to hide their cars in plain sight so that the “Elon Is an A-Hole” vibe doesn’t dissuade purchasers.
Gives me that forgotten 90s economy car that probably took you to soccer practice vibe.