Tesla Model 3 Test Drive: Car Has Bite and Simple Interior (wsj.com)

An anonymous reader shares a WSJ article: A first peek inside Tesla's new Model 3 compact car revealed a starker, cozier interior than the more spacious and luxurious Model S. But as the sedan sped off, the experience felt similar. On Friday, the Silicon Valley auto maker showed off details of the all-electric sedan's interior for the first time (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternative source), allowing brief test rides with a roughly 10-minute spin around the factory. The Model 3 represents a milestone for Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has long wanted to create an electric car for the masses. He's betting the new vehicle can help fuel massive growth for his 14-year-old company, projecting Tesla will produce a half-million cars next year, after delivering about 76,000 Model S sedans and Model X sport-utility vehicles last year. The Model 3's exterior was revealed in March last year, but details about the interior have been scarce. The $35,000 sedan is noticeably bare bones inside -- gone are the displays and instrument panel behind the steering wheel and the numerous switches and buttons found in the cockpit of traditional cars. Instead, the Model 3 makes greater use of a video screen in the center dash that controls most of the car's functions.

Comments

Re:Model 3 is a complete styling miss

[dunkelfalke]

Why would you have a grille opening in a car that doesn't need an air intake? Besides, these wannabe-mouths are usually ugly. I miss the 80ies, back then they tried to hide these for aerodynamic reasons.

Re:Interior design still terrible

[AmiMoJo]

The interior is well designed, spacious like a Japanese car and with lots of storage spaces. The videos people are posting show it's well made, better than the S and X. It's clean and simple, easy to maintain and attractive.

The display is a daylight readable anti-reflection coated. The screens in the S and X don't have issues with readability.

Re:Interior design still terrible

[c]

All the display is to the side - so you have to look sidways and down to find out anything about the vehicle, even its speed. That means you are not looking at the road for longer.

It's at steering wheel height, even slightly higher than a typical console sits, so it's probably not that bad. The center gauge layout isn't unique... the Nissan X-Trail (and probably some other models) used to have that layout and you do get used to it rather quickly.

The bigger concern I'd have is that screen is freaking busy with a lot of small details... Unless that's just a secondary mode and the real driving screen is more like a typical gauge layout I have a feeling the eye will linger on it a lot longer than is safe.