Tesla Model 3 2024 review: Performance - EV test

Put simply, there is no more affordable way to be this fast. Now priced from $80,900 plus on-road costs, the Model 3 Performance is the fastest it has ever been, sprinting from 0-100km/h in just 3.1 seconds. And, at least at the time of writing, it was only about $22,000 (no, wait, it’s $26,000) more than the entry-level Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive. This pricing will no doubt change next week, so maybe check when you’re ready to buy.

Regardless, the point is the jump isn’t ridiculous, but the performance upgrade is. This top-spec Tesla nearly doubles the power and halves the sprint time of its lesser sibling. Seriously. It’s faster than a Lamborghini Huracan, or a Ferrari Roma, or versions of the Porsche Taycan with price tags more than double that of the Tesla's.

Updated 20-inch forged alloy wheels. (Image: Tom White)

If it’s bragging rights you’re after you can’t be beaten. Even looking at its most direct rival, the Polestar 2 Dual Motor with Performance Pack ($85,400) it not only costs more but is more than a full second slower to 100km/h.

The same can be said for the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, Kia EV6 GT, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT. All cost in the region of $100,000 and all are slower.

The only car which might give you pause for thought is the BYD Seal Performance which still isn’t quite as fast (3.8 seconds to 100km/h) but at just $68,748 it might make you think twice.

Standard 15.4-inch central touchscreen. (Image: Tom White)

Now, the only trouble with all of this is the Model 3 Performance hardly scores more equipment than the entry-level version of the car, which is already pretty quick and very good value.

The only visible changes are some subtle tweaks to the body kit to include a front wing, rear diffuser and a little carbon lip spoiler, as well as more aggro 20-inch forged alloy wheels, and if you look closely, larger brakes.

On the inside you score a set of front bucket-style seats, a touch of carbon across the dash and synthetic suede door linings. Still it hardly yells “I’m the fast one” in quite the same way as most of its rivals.

Dual wireless phone chargers. (Image: Tom White)

Standard equipment is mostly the same, consisting of LED headlights, synthetic leather interior trim, heated and ventilated front seats, with a heated steering wheel and heated outboard rear seats, power adjust with memory settings for the front two seats and steering wheel, the 15.4-inch central touchscreen, always online connectivity and nav with an excellent paired phone application and a panoramic fixed roof.

Additions for the Performance include adaptive suspension, a performance brake package, the 20-inch forged alloy wheels, synthetic suede door linings as well as additional software modes for acceleration and track use.

This brings us nicely to practicality. While the cabin is reasonably spacious and efforts have been made to maximise storage on offer, there’s still some goofy stuff.

The lack of a digital dash or head-up display continues to be a head-scratcher, and while you’ll get used to the wheel mounted indicator buttons and purely digital shifter were they a necessary change?

Still, the bucket seats do their part to hold you in place during this car’s mind-bending cornering manoeuvres (more on this later), and space in the cabin is welcome. I fit nicely in both rows at 182cm tall, although in the rear the glass roof is getting pretty close to my noggin.

Up front there’s sufficient storage in both doors suitable for our 500ml test bottle, and a further two in the centre with an aesthetically pleasing slider to cover them up when not in use.

There are no hard buttons for the climate controls, instead you have to negotiate with the touchscreen. (Image: Tom White)

There’s a big storage box in front, underneath the dual wireless phone chargers, and another big storage area with USB-C connectivity hidden underneath the armrest console. Annoyingly, you have to use the touchscreen to open the small glove box on the passenger side. Why?

To add to the frustrations, there are no hard buttons for the climate controls. Instead you have to negotiate with the touchscreen. In fact, this goes for pretty much everything.

On the plus side, Tesla has the best looking and one of the fastest software suites in the business. On the downside some of the toggles and settings are quite small, making them tricky to jab at when you’re on the go.

In the back seat there are again great pockets in the doors for large bottles and a further two in the drop-down armrest (although they are notably smaller than those in the front).

The Performance does away with the pockets on the backs of the front seats leaving just a blank surface, but for the Highland upgrade they get a new touchscreen on the back of the centre console.

This can adjust the climate settings with an independent fan speed controller, and can even offer entertainment options to rear passengers while on-the-go, as well as a set of two USB-C outlets.

These are welcome, but one thing the Model 3 is still missing is a full-size three-pin outlet so you can use its big battery to power household appliances. In fact, it doesn’t get vehicle-to-load (V2L) at all. A missed opportunity.

Boot space is 594 litres which sounds massive, but because the Model 3 is a sedan, it’s hard to load things into (especially compared to a car with a rear hatch opening like the Polestar 2) and much of the usable volume is in a compartment under the floor.

For example, to fit the full three-piece CarsGuide luggage set we had to place the smallest case in the under floor compartment and the larger two cases in the main space above.

As a consolation prize, you get a fairly large (88L) frunk. It fit the smallest travel case snugly.

As mentioned, the Model 3 Performance boasts a significantly upgraded power output compared to the standard Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive. This time around it’s a new unit dubbed ‘4D2’ which is up to 32 per cent (at peak) gruntier than the previous Performance, outputting some 380kW/740Nm. This allows an obscene 0-100km/h sprint time of 3.1 seconds to 100km/h, once the realm of purely exotic vehicles. 

The numbers are such that they cease making sense. It is ludicrously fast.

Before we talk about how this car feels, just a quick word on efficiency. Boring, I know, but the Model 3 Performance, considering its capabilities, also manages to be very efficient.

On a Supercharger unit, expect a 10 - 80 per cent charge in around 31 minutes. (Image: Tom White)

The claim is a suspiciously low 16.7kWh/100km (only slightly higher than a Nissan Leaf) and I was shocked to find in my brief three days of tearing up corners and launching it from freeway on-ramps, it still managed to outperform the claim at an impressive 16.5kWh/100km.

It uses a roughly (Tesla doesn’t deal in absolutes) 79kWh battery pack using the higher-output and more energy dense nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistry which grants it a WLTP-certified 528km cruising range. It’s plenty.

Charging maxes out at 250kW on DC or 11kW on AC. On a Supercharger unit capable of the maximum, expect a 10 - 80 per cent charge in around 31 minutes. The Tesla Model 3 uses a Type 2 CCS charging plug in Australia.

The safety suite on the Model 3 continues to be impressive. The central screen’s radar portion gives you a look at this car’s ‘brain’ as its cameras constantly analyse and categorise objects around you. Few cars do this to quite the same level.

Equivalents of all the expective active systems are here, including auto emergency braking to freeway speeds, lane keep assist, and blind-spot monitoring via a small red light in the door-mounted speakers.

Tesla’s ‘autosteer’ adaptive cruise control is still perhaps the best system on the market. The car can basically drive itself, but it is scarily good at keeping its lane. Distance control is less perfect but still better than pretty much everything else on the market.

The updated Model 3 doesn’t yet have a new ANCAP safety rating, and the previous version’s five-star rating achieved in 2019 is no longer valid. This version has had significant safety enhancements this time around, including better side-intrusion protection built into the doors in order to comply with upgraded North American safety requirements.