Last week, reports emerged that the Tesla Model 3’s much-anticipated refresh, codenamed Project Highland, was weeks away from production, bringing with it cost efficiency for Tesla while improving its attractiveness to current and future Tesla owners.
Now a report has emerged from Chris Zheng, the same source in Shanghai, that the production of Project Highland has started at scale, with 7,000 units of production expected in August. This will be ramped up to 10,000 in September.
Starting tomorrow, Gigashanghai Model 3 production line will be fully shifted to Highland production, with a target production of 7,000 this month and 10,000 next month. Production capacity is no longer hell, but ramping is still not easy.
— Chris Zheng (@ChrisZheng001) August 13, 2023
This is good news on many parts as the new Tesla Model 3 is rumoured to be cheaper to produce due to an improvement in manufacturing methods, many of which Tesla developed for the Tesla Model Y which was released two years after the unveiling of the Model 3.
These include the use of Gigacastings to produce single large front and rear single sections of the car instead of welding over a hundred parts together as is the case in the current Model 3.
Large machines used to produce these castings are supplied by IDRA, which also have also recently supplied an even bigger version for the production of Tesla Cybertruck.
The latest model is also expected to have some updates over the current model including updates to the interior, powertrain as well as exterior styling.
A larger battery on the base Tesla Model 3 RWD variant is also expected given previous reports. It’s expected to have 550 km of WLTP estimated range which is a bump of over 10% over the current Model 3.
This change will help some potential buyers who are still concerned about the range of EVs make the switch from their ICE vehicles.
On the drivetrain front, it’s unclear at this stage if there are any changes to the power outputs of the drive units, particularly for the Performance variant which today outputs 377 kW propelling it to a top speed of 261 km/h.
With demand for the Model 3 being eclipsed by the larger more popular Model Y SUV, an update will help more people consider the Model 3.
The current Model 3 prices are the lowest they have ever been so a new version at that price in the coming months will be compelling to many new buyers.
On top of that, it’d encourage some existing buyers with earlier Model 3 vehicles to consider an update. That will help get more used EVs on the market which further helps with increasing the affordability of EVs.
We look forward to seeing more updates on the new Model 3, as Tesla aims to ramp its production in the coming weeks.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.