Several months on from the unveiling of the Tesla Model 3 ‘Highland’ facelift, a higher-performance variant of the model from the American EV maker has been seen wearing camouflage, parked at a Tesla Supercharger location in Santa Monica, California in the United States, as posted to Reddit and X. The upcoming variant of the EV that is already on sale in Malaysia can be seen in these images to feature a sportier front seat design, where the headrests appear to be integrated into the seat backs, as on bucket seats in other cars with a sporty slant. This is likely to be the upcoming Model 3 Performance, which as its name suggests, will be a more potent version of the brand’s sedan EV model.
The upcoming Model 3 Performance facelift
will also come with a revised exterior to differentiate it from other Model 3
variants, namely with a deeper front intake and restyled splitter with ridges
above the lower edge. Rolling stock is likely to be different for the Model 3
Performance, too, whereas the existing range in Malaysia gets either the
18-inch ‘Photon’ wheels or 19-inch ‘Nova’ wheels. According to Car Expert,
Tesla director of vehicle programmes Daniel Ho mentioned that the Model 3
Performance would return in the first half of 2024. In addition to the changes
to its exterior and interior as are visible here, there will also be upgraded
brake and suspension components, the Australian site wrote.
The Performance variant of the previous
iteration of the Model 3 featured a Track Mode for its dual-motor powertrain
that is able to send a 100% torque bias to either the front or rear axle,
aiming to provide the necessary rotation when turning through a corner or bend.
Looking at the previous version of the Model 3 Performance as a guide – which
does 0-96 km/h in 4.4 seconds and a 248 km/h top speed –
the upcoming version based on the ‘Highland’ facelift should gain considerably
on the current car’s performance stats in Long Range AWD guise, which offers a
claimed 6.1 second sprint from 0-96 km/h, and a 201 km/h top speed.
