CarBrandLogos archive · Tesla · 2017

TeslaModel 3

The car the whole plan had been building toward, and the one that nearly broke it.

Photo: Alexander-93 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Tesla history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Tesla Model 3, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Tesla's original strategy was explicit: sell an expensive sports car, use the money to build a cheaper saloon, use that money to build a car ordinary people could buy. The Model 3 was step three. When reservations opened in 2016, several hundred thousand people put down deposits for a car they had not seen in the metal, which told Tesla the demand existed and left it with the problem of building at a scale it had never attempted.

People in line to reserve Tesla Model 3 · Aaron Muszalski · CC BY 2.0

First Model 3 production cars ready for delivery

Design and engineering

The first year of production in 2017 and 2018 went badly enough that Musk called it production hell. Over-automation on the assembly line had to be partially undone, a temporary line was erected in a tent outside the Fremont factory, and the company came close enough to running out of money that its survival was openly discussed. It got through, and output climbed.

First Model 3 production cars ready for delivery · Steve Jurvetson · CC BY 2.0

Silver and Midnight Silver Tesla Model 3s

In production

The car itself is a rear- or dual-motor mid-size saloon with a minimal interior built around a single central screen, no instrument binnacle and very few switches, which reviewers found either clean or irritating depending on temperament. Dynamically it was good enough to be compared with the compact executive saloons it targeted, and the combination of range, charging network access and price made the comparison hold up.

Silver and Midnight Silver Tesla Model 3s · Seungho Yang · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

Gigafactory Shanghai, which began building Model 3s in 2019, changed the economics again by giving Tesla a high-volume plant close to its supply base. The Model 3 became the best-selling electric car in the world for several years and the vehicle that moved battery-electric cars from a niche to a category the entire industry had to compete in.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

2017–present

Designer

Franz von Holzhausen

Body

4-door sedan

Technical specification

The Model 3, in detail.

Production: 2017–present
Class: Mid-size car
Body style: 4-door sedan
Layout: Rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout; Rear-motor, rear-wheel drive ; Dual-motor, all-wheel drive
Transmission: Single-speed fixed (9:1 ratio)
Designer: Franz von Holzhausen
Assembly: United States: Fremont, California (Tesla Fremont Factory; Fremont Factory) ; China: Shanghai (Gigafactory Shanghai)
Manufacturer: Tesla, Inc.