Model 3 Highland Begins Production
New reporting from China shows that while we’ve all been laser-focused on the Cybertruck - Tesla has managed to design, test - and now begin mass producing - the new Model 3 Highland at their gigafactory in Shanghai.
On August 17th, a Bloomberg piece laid out claims from an anonymous source that Tesla plans to begin mass-production of the revamped Model 3 sedan at GigaShangai - and have them appear in showrooms there by the end of this month.
This news comes only about two weeks after an August 4th report that GigaShanghai had shut down part of its Model 3 and Model Y lines to accommodate the switch to the new Highland production.
And that brings us to August 19th, when observers were able to catch these images of a growing fleet of covered vehicles in the GigaShanghai parking lot - despite the increased security measures against the use of drones on site.
Given that we know the company’s plans for unveiling the refreshed Model 3 later this month - or within the next 60 days by some estimates - it seems impossible that these covered vehicles aren’t the first batch of customer-ready Highlands.
The Project Highland refresh was one of the more anticipated design campaigns in the Tesla community for a good chunk of late 2022 - just before the company started really testing and hyping the release of the Cybertruck.
The idea was that the Model 3 - like the Models S, X, and Y - were in some need of redesign to bring them up to current Tesla standards. The passed two years or so had seen the company make great use of technology like the Gigapress casting machines to reduce a lot of parts complexity for the Model Y. Tesla wanted to do the same with the Model 3.
From the first bit of information we got, it seemed that Tesla’s sedan would also be getting an updated interior - with a new infotainment display, a new steering wheel, new seats, and a new dash.
The exterior would also be getting an update - partially to prepare at least some versions for the new Hardware 4 FSD cameras - but also to just bring the look of the vehicle more in line with some of the others. In particular, sightings of some pre-production models showed a new headlight and bumper design that looked a little bit more like the Model S.
Some newer leaks of the design have included details like an 18 inch wheel design, but essentially we haven’t gotten much more than we’ve been able to see from the glimpses and leaks earlier in the year.
The big question here is how this particular production seems to have slipped beneath the community’s notice. Cybertruck is the easiest answer to that of course - there’s been so many eyes on GigaTexas that it’s hard to imagine the community chasing down sightings of a redesign being conducted overseas.
But it’s that part that sticks out as a better reason for us all not noticing how close the Highland was to being finished - it’s really hard to get information about a project going on in China.
Sure there were prototypes driving around California for a bit, but most of the big work was being done in Shanghai - where there’s less support for observers, and it’s less practical to look up permits or shipping manifests like many Tesla fans do in the US.
And with Tesla’s North American facilities all quite busy at the moment, it likely made more sense to conduct the last part of this project in Shanghai - where the completed Model 3 could then be shipped out to other locations.
There’s been no official word as to the exact date of the unveiling event - but we expect that once there has been an announcement, we’ll also be getting a full list of all the updated details in the new Model 3.