See Tesla Model 3 Facelift Reach Top Speed During Development In China

A new video discussing the car’s attributes was posted on the company’s official Weibo account.

Photo by: Tesla

By: Iulian Dnistran

Sep 28, 2023 at 3:38am ET

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The facelifted Tesla Model 3, also known as “Project Highland,” made quite a splash when it debuted late last month, putting an end to all the speculation, spy shots, and rumors surrounding the most affordable EV made by the Austin-based brand.

Some of the headlining comfort-related features of the new Model 3 are the improved dampers and the greenhouse that’s now made up entirely of acoustic glass, as opposed to the non-facelift car that only gets noise-repelling glass on the windshield and front windows.

Another thing that might have gone under the radar for some people who are looking to buy a new Model 3 (as long as they live in a market where Tesla is selling it – the US excluded, at least for now) is that the car has been developed mostly in China by the company’s Shanghai engineering team.

Discussing all these features and more is a new video posted on Tesla’s official Weibo account (which later got reposted on X by @xiaoteshushu – embedded below), where Lars Moravy, the Elon Musk-led manufacturer’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, talks about how the biggest target of the team was to make drivers happier.

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At the 17-second mark, the black prototype shown in the video is seen reaching its China-rated top speed of 200 kilometers per hour (124.2 miles per hour). With this being said, both the rear-wheel drive and Long Range versions are listed as having a 201 kph (124.8 mph) top speed in European markets, while the 0 to 100 kph (0-62 mph) sprint times are the same as on the Chinese-bound EV: 6.1 seconds for the RWD and 4.4 s for the Long Range.

Revealed six years after the original Model 3, the so-called “Project Highland” EV is already being built at Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory with a redesigned exterior and an improved interior that features ambient lighting, a new infotainment touchscreen for rear passengers, and an improved sound system that can blast music from 17 speakers – three more than before – in the case of the Long Range.