New 2021 Tesla Model 3 Driven – Now Even Better

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Model 3 has only been out for a little over three years in the USA, and even less time in Europe, but a major update has already arrived. Tesla has been incrementally improving the Model 3, as with all its cars, via software updates. There have even been a few small hardware tweaks, like the inclusion of the wireless phone charger from the Model Y in the Model 3 earlier in 2020. However, the 2021 bump is a much bigger update and delivers one very significant hardware change that may have recent Model 3 buyers wishing they had waited a few more months. Here are the most important differences.

Exterior Trim Redesign

Let’s start with how the new cars look. There are some minor changes to the external appearance of the Model 3 compared to the original – or major changes, depending on your point of view. A popular modification to the original Model 3 has been a “chrome delete”, which covers up the chrome trim with black vinyl. Now Tesla is doing the chrome delete out of the factory, so all the trim around the windows and the triangular camera cupolas just behind the front wheels are black rather than shiny chrome. You may or may not have disliked the chrome trim – it is common in recent cars from manufacturers as diverse as Nissan and Mercedes. But the general view is it looks better.

The new 20in Uberturbine wheels on the Model 3, which replace the previous 20in rims, are more controversial, although they do apparently improve range. A less obvious change is the inclusion of double-glazed windows. In fact, I say less obvious – it’s nearly impossible to tell they’re there by looking. This is not a cosmetic change but intended to reduce the audibility of exterior noise and improve insulation – which will benefit climate control power consumption whether it’s cold out and you’re trying to keep warm, or vice versa. However, there is a much more significant improvement to the way the climate control works.

The Big Change – A Heat Pump

When the Tesla Model Y launched, one inclusion in particular made Model 3 owners jealous – its heat pump. The easiest way to understand what a heat pump does would be to imagine a fridge working in reverse. If you put your hand on the radiator at the back of your fridge, you’ll notice that it’s warm. But the inside of the fridge is cold. Heat has been extracted from the interior and radiated to the exterior. If you put the cold bit outside and the radiator inside, you can extract heat from the external area and bring it inside. This will even work if the weather is below freezing – think of your freezer, which also has a warm radiator at the back.

This is a much more efficient way of providing heat than using wire-based heating elements, because heat is being transferred rather than generated. In fact, it’s being considered as a way to replace home gas boilers with electrically fueled heating that is much more cost-effective than electric element radiators. For electric vehicles, heat pumps address one of the stock criticisms that EV range drops in cold weather due to the electricity consumed by their heaters. With heat pumps being up to three times more efficient than regular element heaters, the energy saving can be considerable in cold weather. The only downside for the Model 3 is that the frunk (front trunk) is a little bit smaller, because that’s where the heat pump has been installed. Speaking of trunks (or the boot, in the UK), this now has a powered opening mechanism.

Increased Range Across All Model 3s

The positive end result of the heat pump, alongside further efficiency improvements, is greater range across all the Model 3 variants. The basic Model 3 Standard Range Plus already had an excellent WLTP range of 254 miles, but now this has risen to 267 miles. The Long Range goes from 348 WLTP miles to a huge 360 miles, and the Performance gets the biggest boost of all, going from 329 miles to 352 miles. There has been some talk that the Dual Motor cars now have a 82kWh battery instead of 79kWh, but Tesla hasn’t confirmed this. Either way, the Dual Motor cars have the best range in their class by a country mile, with only the Tesla Model S achieving more (now 405 miles for the Long Range Plus, and over 520 miles for the forthcoming Plaid).

The Standard Range Plus does have more competition in its price range, with the Volkswagen ID.3 Tour capable of 336 WLTP miles, for around £1,200 ($1,600) less, and a number of cars from Hyundai and Kia also going further for less money. But none of these can benefit from Tesla’s widespread Supercharger network, which remains a very important unique feature for Tesla owners only. The Model 3, in every version, is also faster and more dynamically accomplished.

Minor Interior Tweaks

To go with the removal of shiny bling on the outside of the Model 3, the interior has lost the shiny black plastic surfaces on the central console, as well as some of the silver trim. It has gained some classy stitching, but most importantly the wireless phone charger, which was a plug-in addition to the previous Model 3 under a flap, is now a fully integrated tray for two phones. You do lose the space underneath, however.

The cubby further along now has a sliding door rather than a flip-up one, but that’s the same size, and you get two side-by-side cupholders behind that, plus the usual arm rest. There’s now a USB port inside the glove compartment for use with Tesla’s all-seeing Sentry mode, which records activity all around the car when enabled, so you can catch vandals or car-park collisions from every angle.

The Same, But Better

None of this has changed the driving dynamic of the Model 3, however. The Standard Range Plus version I drove was as before – one of the best-handling EVs on the market. The 0 to 60mph remains 5.3 seconds, which is only beaten by more expensive alternatives, such as the Polestar 2 or Jaguar I-Pace. The Dual Motor cars do appear to be a little faster, with the Long Range now hitting 60mph in 4.2 rather than 4.4 seconds and the Performance a mind-numbing 3.1 seconds instead of 3.2. However, Tesla increased the Model 3’s motor power by 5% in Q4 2019 via a software update but didn’t change the online specs, so in practice there is likely very little difference in brute acceleration.

Either way, the Model 3 Dual Motor cars had (literally) eyewatering performance on tap already, and incredible driving dynamics for a 1.85-ton car. They corner like they’re on rails and deliver their power immediately. This is a bit less of the case with the Standard Range Plus, but any Tesla Model 3 can give a fossil fuel GTI owner something to think about, and the Performance will leave them cowering in your rearview mirror.

In its short life, the Model 3 has managed to cruise past the venerable Nissan Leaf that has been available for nearly a decade in global sales, with nearly 650,000 now on the road. The 2021 version doesn’t look or drive that differently to the first version, but the subtle changes – particularly the addition of the heat pump – just nudge the Tesla Model 3 that little bit further ahead of its competitors, with an even more impressive lead in range. Only the Polestar 2 has come close so far, without quite surpassing Tesla. We will see increasingly stiff competition from Volkswagen over the next couple of years, but right now, the 2021 Tesla Model 3 remains the king of mid-sized electric executive saloons – and better than most fossil-fuel-powered ones too.