The new Model 3 finally takes off the label of “rough house” | Ai Faner

As long as Tesla Model 3 is mentioned, one can never escape the ridicule of “rough house”.

In the past two or three years when new forces have emerged, luxury interiors of different styles have come in various ways to whet our aesthetic appetite. In comparison, the interior of Tesla Model 3 is indeed lackluster.

However, Model 3 is already a model released by Tesla 7 years ago.

At Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, it only takes 40 seconds for each Model 3 to roll off the production line. The highly automated and modular production method determines the low frequency of Tesla model updates. For Tesla, every small change will bring about cost changes. Tesla, which is extremely sensitive to cost changes, wants to find a balance between cost reduction and updates. It is not an easy task.

In the past seven years, Tesla has successively completed minor facelifts of Model 3 on the basis of reducing costs by 30%. However, small changes have always been difficult to get rid of the joke of “rough housing”. The interior of Model 3 has fallen behind in the fierce new energy market.

The situation ushered in a change in September this year.

On September 1, Tesla officially released the refreshed version of Model 3. As a major replacement model after 7 years, Tesla has put more little-known efforts into the new Model 3. We can discover Tesla’s More thoughts on the texture of new cars.

The new Model 3 is no longer a “rough house”.

Upgrade, the ultimate goal of Model 3

With a goal to premium-up the entire vehicle, it was an amazing opportunity to have a stepped change in perceived quality.

Marcus Roffey, design executive for the refreshed Model 3, describes it this way.

Marcus Roffey believes that the ultimate goal of Tesla’s internal team is to improve the quality of the entire car, and the new Model 3 will be an excellent opportunity to make people admire the quality of Tesla’s new cars.

In fact, Marcus Roffey is right. Judging from the design of the refreshed version, everything is in line with the big brother Model S. The new Model 3 is like a small Model S.

This Tesla texture expert wrote on LinkedIn about the “mental journey” of Tesla’s internal team in improving the new Model 3. In terms of appearance, the team systematically trimmed the gaps around the taillights. The integrated taillight design helps make the components of the new Model 3 more closely connected, thereby achieving a seamless appearance design.

After closing the charging port, it is difficult to find the gaps between different components.

Marcus Roffey further added.

It is worth mentioning that Tesla’s quality control issues have long been criticized. Slightly rough workmanship often causes gaps in the body to appear uneven in size. The internal team solved this problem with a tighter gap design. Not very elegant” question.

The integrated design in many places also brings better wind resistance performance to the refreshed model. The relatively big change in the new Model 3 occurs on the front face. Compared with the old model, the new model has a front surround with simpler and sharper lines. The Tesla design team canceled the fog light structure under the front face and only used A simple line is drawn in one stroke to outline the posture of the air intake below.

The sharp and smooth design improves Highland’s wind resistance performance. According to Tesla, the new Model 3’s wind resistance coefficient is only 0.22cd, which also leads to better energy consumption performance.

This has actually met Musk’s expectations. In the second chapter of the Master Plan in 2016, Musk once proposed the Robotaxi online car-hailing concept vision. In the project vision, Tesla will provide driverless transportation services, and Model 3 will be the main model responsible for transportation operations. According to Musk, the energy utilization rate of Model 3 at that time (2019) reached 7.24 kilometers/kWh, and Musk hopes to increase this performance to 8.05 kilometers/kWh.

At present, the refreshed Model 3 should meet energy consumption expectations well.

The doors of the new Model 3 have also been optimized. Many foreign media have keenly discovered the difference in the door closing sound of the new model during actual car testing. Compared with the old model, the door closing texture of the new version is thicker. Marcus Roffey also confirmed it dynamically at this point.

At least in terms of appearance and performance, the texture of the new Model 3 is quite good.

Details to make things better

The improvement in texture also occurs in subtle details that are not easily noticeable to us. Tesla’s internal team has completely renovated the interior of the new Model 3.

The real fun lies in the transformation of the interior. We redesigned the interior of the new Model 3 on an almost blank canvas.

Marcus Roffey made no secret of his praise for the refreshed interior.

In addition to what we said in “New Model 3 Released!” The interior and exterior decorations have been completely renewed, and screen shifting has entered the era of all people.” In the article, Tesla’s internal team has also put in a lot of “little-known” efforts on the interior updates mentioned in this new car.

Following the pace of the foreign media autoevolution and entering the car with a magnifying glass, we can find some updated points that are not easy to find.

The first change comes from the release logic of the glove box. According to foreign media records, the glove box of the refreshed Model 3 has been changed from a mechanical lock structure to an electromagnetic structure.

Tesla has also chosen more soft-touch fabrics for the interior of the car. Tesla has also upgraded the invisible storage compartments on the doors of Model 3. Compared with the plastic materials of the old model, the new version of Model 3 has replaced Soft felt lining.

Tesla has also optimized the sound system in the car. Tesla upgraded the 14-speaker design of the original model to a 17-speaker system. According to media reports, the sound system of the refreshed Model 3 was tuned by Bang & Olufsen’s sound engineering team. The B&O team added a new speaker in the trunk. Two amplifiers and subwoofers are installed to improve the overall sound quality performance.

Comfort configuration is optimized, and safety configuration is also taken into consideration.

We once tracked and reported in an article how to open the doors of different Tesla models from inside the car during a power outage. The old Model 3 model is only equipped with a manual door release device in the front row. However, in the refreshed version, Tesla has added a manual release device for the rear door, solving the problem of “there is a manual door release device in the front row, but not in the rear row”. embarrassing question.

In addition, Tesla has also made moves in terms of driving safety configuration. The new Model 3 has added side collision warning lights. However, compared to installing it on the edges of the left and right rearview mirrors in most models, Tesla designed this signal light on the audio trim panel below the A-pillar. Not only can the central control provide road condition information, the new blind spot warning on the A-pillar provides a more intuitive warning for car owners. Interestingly, this is also the first Tesla model to be equipped with side blind spot warning lights.

Finally, the refreshed Model 3 starts to make a fuss about the new headlights. At the Munich Auto Show, the new Model 3 demonstrated the “Light Show” function for the first time. Matching the rhythm of the music played, the headlights, turn signals and even the rear trunk will all move according to the melody. It is reported that Tesla’s internal team has retained the “LightShow” function option in the car’s Toybox, and car owners can turn it on at any time.

Different from the rumored “crazy cost reduction”, Tesla seems to be particularly thoughtful about this Model 3, which has been updated after 7 years. After the appearance and interior upgrades, the refreshed Model 3 is closer to today’s luxury electric cars. Definition.

These “little-known” efforts by Tesla are taking away the Model 3’s “rough house” hat.