The Tesla Model 3 is perhaps the most anticipated car of the past decade. With a multi-billion-dollar battery gigafactory beginning construction long before as many as 500,000 Model 3s per year start to roll off the company's Fremont assembly line, it truly carries the destiny of this electric vehicle company upon its wheels. It also holds the hopes and aspirations of the many thousands who look to this "affordable Tesla" to rescue them from the ICE age.
With its official reveal expected in March of 2016 – eight months from now – it's only natural that the search for hints and clues about its appearance is already in full effect. One of the most solid leads we've seen so far comes to us from the very busy Tesla Motors Club forum, where user "hockeythug" posted a screen capture from a video piece on Elon Musk by the Australian version of 60 Minutes.
The image is a wide shot of the Tesla design studio where masses of clay are carved into realistic representations of a stylist's vision. While the camera crew is gathered around a partially-uncovered Model X, across the room a couple other automotive sculptures sit, their exact identities concealed by cloths.
Now, we know from Tim Urban, the author of a (very awesome) in-depth Wait But Why piece titled "How Tesla Will Change The World" that a clay model of the Tesla 3 already exists, as he says in that essay chief designer Franz von Holzhausen showed it to him. We can't definitively say which of the earthen figures, if any, is the car in question, but using deductive reasoning and our government-issued license to speculate (not a real thing), we believe it could very well be the one circled in the image above.
It is smaller than the other possible candidate, as one would expect, and even though its exact lines are hidden, its tent is tight enough to reveal facets of the fascia, which is unlike anything the automaker has previously shown. According to what Urban was told by von Holzhausen, the clay version is asymmetrical, with two possible variations being explored at the same time. As we can see from the image, there is still some amount of sculpting wizardry to be performed on the passenger side.
So, if this is, actually, our first hint at the Model 3 styling, what say you? Do you prefer the more angular approach of the right side, or the softer subdued look of the left? Should Tesla even begin its third generation with a sedan instead of the expected crossover? And what is that car to the right of the suspected Model 3? An exterior refresh of the Model S? Let us know in Comments.
With its official reveal expected in March of 2016 – eight months from now – it's only natural that the search for hints and clues about its appearance is already in full effect. One of the most solid leads we've seen so far comes to us from the very busy Tesla Motors Club forum, where user "hockeythug" posted a screen capture from a video piece on Elon Musk by the Australian version of 60 Minutes.
The image is a wide shot of the Tesla design studio where masses of clay are carved into realistic representations of a stylist's vision. While the camera crew is gathered around a partially-uncovered Model X, across the room a couple other automotive sculptures sit, their exact identities concealed by cloths.
Now, we know from Tim Urban, the author of a (very awesome) in-depth Wait But Why piece titled "How Tesla Will Change The World" that a clay model of the Tesla 3 already exists, as he says in that essay chief designer Franz von Holzhausen showed it to him. We can't definitively say which of the earthen figures, if any, is the car in question, but using deductive reasoning and our government-issued license to speculate (not a real thing), we believe it could very well be the one circled in the image above.
It is smaller than the other possible candidate, as one would expect, and even though its exact lines are hidden, its tent is tight enough to reveal facets of the fascia, which is unlike anything the automaker has previously shown. According to what Urban was told by von Holzhausen, the clay version is asymmetrical, with two possible variations being explored at the same time. As we can see from the image, there is still some amount of sculpting wizardry to be performed on the passenger side.
So, if this is, actually, our first hint at the Model 3 styling, what say you? Do you prefer the more angular approach of the right side, or the softer subdued look of the left? Should Tesla even begin its third generation with a sedan instead of the expected crossover? And what is that car to the right of the suspected Model 3? An exterior refresh of the Model S? Let us know in Comments.
Related Gallery Tesla Motors design studio screen capture
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