Here’s how Motor Trend’s Tesla Model 3 Highland 70 MPH Range test fared

With a 95 percent battery charge, the single-motor Model 3 RWD traveled 211 miles and the twin-motor Model 3 Long Range 250 miles.

Since its unveiling in late August, Tesla’s updated 2024 Model 3 — aka Project Highland — has drawn a lot of attention to Tesla’s game-changing sedan. It is currently sold in several European markets, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and more recently in China. One big question remains, though: When will it come to the United States?

While most Americans are waiting for it, the happy journalists at Motor trend got not one, but two all-new Model 3 sedans: the base single-engine variant with rear-wheel drive and the dual-engine variant with AWD.

Let’s start with perhaps the most important: range. Motor trend drove the new Model 3s with batteries at 95 percent charged at a constant speed of 70 mph. The Model 3 RWD traveled 211 miles, while the Model 3 Long Range traveled 250 miles. Expect significantly higher EPA figures as the cars top out at 60 mph in the agency’s test cycle.

Mind you, MT also tested the old Model 3 Long Range, which went 258 miles on the same cycle. However, the old car ran on smaller wheels than the new one, so the comparison was not exact. However, that doesn’t suggest a big range improvement from the new model, but who knows what tweaks Tesla might make when the car goes on sale in the US or what the final EPA numbers will be.

But the rest of the new Model 3 offers some nice improvements. Reviewers Joe Berry and Kristen Lee found both cars offer a much more composed and refined ride, thanks in large part to a revised suspension that includes updated shocks and bushings that work well with the new wheels with revised brake rotors.

The chassis feels quite balanced in the corners and the car is said to ride much better now than it once did; it doesn’t bump as much on uneven pavement. That alone addresses a major criticism of the original Model 3 (and the Model Y, for that matter.)

Gallery: The new Tesla Model 3

The steering gets a special mention from Lee, who says the 2024 Model 3 has one of the nicer steering gears of any electric car she’s driven. While in many electric cars the steering feels somewhat dead or numb, in the new Model 3 it is quick, intuitive and very linear. She also liked the “very smooth” regenerative braking and “really nice” one-pedal driving.

Refinement seems to be the key word when talking about the facelifted Model 3, as it’s on display at every level and in every department. The cabin is quieter and more comfortable than before thanks in part to the acoustic glass used by Tesla, among other cabin improvements.

interesting Motor trend also measured the performance of the new Model 3 and found that the Model 3 RWD went from 0 to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, while the Model 3 Long Range did it in 4 seconds. The Model 3 LR also does the quarter mile in 12.3 seconds at 114.4 mph.

Overall, the 2024 Tesla Model 3 doesn’t look like a new car, but an overall improved car according to this review, which is likely the EV maker’s goal with this mid-cycle update in the first place.

Despite all that, there’s still no word on when the refreshed Model 3 will become available in the United States, and Tesla executives who attended the company’s third-quarter 2023 earnings call on Wednesday didn’t shed any light on the subject. When asked about it, Tesla’s senior director of investor relations Martin Vieja said the company does not respond to “questions related to products and the timing of the earnings call.”

The Highland Model 3 is obviously a nice upgrade. It’s just one that may require a little more patience from Americans.