2024 Tesla Model 3 electric car facelift unveiled, due in Australia next year

The world’s best-selling electric sedan has just received its most comprehensive update – with more driving range and a new look – since it arrived in US showrooms six years ago.

The facelifted 2024 Tesla Model 3 electric car has been revealed – after months of reports, spy photos and leaked images – ahead of first Australian deliveries early next year.

It is the most significant update to the Tesla Model 3 – the company’s all-time best seller in Australia – since it arrived in US showrooms in 2017, and in Australia in 2019.

The update brings a refreshed look, upgraded interior with new seats and trims, and increased driving range for all models.

Prices have risen across the range – with the entry-level rear-wheel-drive model now priced from $61,900 plus on-road costs, up from $61,300 previously, and the Long Range from $71,900 plus on-roads, up $1500.

Orders are open now on the Tesla Australia website ahead of first deliveries due between January and March 2024, pending any delays.

There are two models in the updated Tesla Model 3 line-up: the base Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) and all-wheel-drive Long Range AWD.

There is no mention of the flagship all-wheel-drive Performance in the launch materials; it is unclear if it has been axed, or will return at a later date.

Driving range has been lifted across the board due to improved aerodynamics, and a reduction in the drag coefficient from 0.23Cd to 0.219Cd, making it one of the world’s most aerodynamically-efficient production cars – reportedly contributing to energy efficiency of just 13.2kWh/100km for the base model.

The Tesla Australia website lists claims driving range has increased from 491km to 513km, and the Long Range from 602km to 629km. The outgoing Performance quoted 547km.

Interestingly, these Australian figures apply to versions with 18-inch and 19-inch wheels – whereas in Europe they are applicable only to 19-inch wheeled versions. In Europe Tesla claims 554km for the RWD, and 678km for the Long Range with 18-inch alloys.

Acceleration is unchanged, with zero to 100km/h still covered in a claimed 6.1 seconds for the RWD and 4.4 seconds for the Long Range. Top speed has dropped to 201km/h for both models, compared to 225km/h for the old RWD, and 233km/h for the old Long Range.

Tesla does not quote battery sizes or power outputs. There does not appear to be any change to the batteries.

Model 3 RWD with 18-inch wheels.

Exterior changes for the Model 3 are considerable, led by a new front end with slimmer matrix LED headlights inspired by the Roadster sports-car concept, and a simpler front bumper with a reshaped air intake.

There are new 18-inch Photon and 19-inch Nova alloy wheel designs, and the rear end has been revised with lower-profile LED tail-lights – which adopt a ‘C’ shape – plus a restyled lower bumper with a Model S-like diffuser insert.

There are two new colours, Ultra Red and Stealth Grey. The updated model is about 25mm longer bumper to bumper than its predecessor.

According to reports, Tesla quotes a 30 per cent reduction in wind noise, 25 per cent reduction in suspension noise, and 20 per cent reduction in road noise thanks to acoustic glass on the rear windows (in addition to the front windows and windscreen, as fitted before), and more sound insulation.

Tesla has also reportedly reworked the suspension with new springs and dampers, which are said to combine with new tyres for a softer ride.

The Model 3 is believed to have upgraded to newer driver-assistance cameras of a higher quality, but this is yet to be confirmed.

Photo via Twitter.

Inside, the landscape infotainment touchscreen now measures 15.4 inches, up from 15.0 – with Tesla-designed software without Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – and there is no instrument cluster or speed readout directly ahead of the driver.

The screen is said to be brighter, with slimmer bezels.

The gear selector stalk has been ditched in favour of a slider on the touchscreen for switching between Drive, Reverse and Park – and the indicator controls have moved from a stalk, to touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel.

Photo via Twitter.

Elsewhere inside the changes are significant, with new-design front seats trimmed in synthetic leather-look upholstery, and fitted with power adjustment, heating and, for the first time, cooling.

There are new designs for the dashboard, centre console and door cards, and ambient multi-colour lighting is now built into the dashboard and doors.

Long Range models are now fitted with 17 speakers – three more than before – plus two subwoofers and two amplifiers, while the RWD has nine speakers and one amplifier.

Photo via Twitter.

Rear-seat passengers are now treated to a touchscreen in the back of the front centre console, akin to the larger Model S sedan.

Buyers can continue to choose from black or white upholstery, but the new dashboard means the faux wood trim inside versions with black seats has been dropped in favour of fabric dashboard trim.

First Australian deliveries of the 2024 Tesla Model 3 are due in early 2024, with production in China already underway for left-hand-drive markets.

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Kia EV6 production halted after factory fire – report

A major fire in the paint shop of a Kia factory has forced the production of the EV6 electric car to be suspended for more than a week.

The aftermath of a fire at the Kia EV6 factory. Credit: The Korean Car Blog.

One of Kia’s eight South Korean factories will remain closed until the second week of September due to a fire.

The Kia plant is responsible for manufacturing the electric EV6, though it’s understood the fire was caused by a spark from the cabling of a robot in the paint shop, Yonhap News Agency reports.

The facility’s automatic fire suppression system came into effect, before Kia’s own fire brigade arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire after 40 minutes, according to multiple reports.

There have been no injuries reported, however all eight paint robots were damaged in the incident.

Management and worker representatives agreed to suspend all plant operations until 7 September, as the company works to quickly restore its paint shop.

It’s not known exactly how many EV6s are produced each month, but it’s estimated the delay will affect approximately 2500 vehicles.

As reported by Drive in June 2023, Kia Australia was able to increase its local allocation of EV6 vehicles, reducing waiting times for customers to around three to four months.

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2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N electric hot hatch price announced for Australia

The first electric Hyundai N performance car is the South Korean company’s most expensive model ever – and more than twice the price of a Hyundai i30 N hot hatch.

The 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N electric ‘hot hatch’ will become the most expensive car ever to wear the Hyundai badge in Australia when pre-orders open this month.

The Ioniq 5 N will be priced from $111,000 plus on-road costs – $31,500 more than the regular Ioniq 5 Techniq all-wheel drive on which it is based.

It is comfortably the most expensive Hyundai sold in Australia – beating the Ioniq 6 Epiq electric sedan ($88,000 plus on-roads) – and is more than double the price of a top-of-the-range Hyundai i30 N petrol hot hatch ($53,700 plus on-roads).

Estimated to cost close to $120,000 drive-away – depending on where it is registered – the Ioniq 5 N is also significantly more expensive than its Kia EV6 GT relative under the skin, which lists for $99,590 plus on-road costs.

MORE: 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N electric hot hatch unveiled, due in Australia next year

While the price is the highest of any Hyundai, the Ioniq 5 N is also the largest (400mm longer than an i30 N hatch nose-to-tail), most powerful, quickest-accelerating, and heaviest vehicle ever sold by the Hyundai N high-performance division.

Hyundai Australia has announced an “online pre-sale” for the first Ioniq 5 N examples due in Australia between January and March 2024, scheduled for 15 September 2023.

For 12 hours from 12:00pm AEST to midnight on 15 September, buyers will be able to configure their chosen specification and place a $2000 deposit to secure their place in the queue.

Options are limited to a panoramic ‘Vision Roof’ for $2000, and matte paint for $1000 – while customers who order in the pre-sale will receive “a special gift package” valued at $1000, including two Hyundai N-branded Pelican hard cases, a torch, and “additional N merchandise”.

A full list of standard equipment will be published closer to launch.

Available colours will include Performance Blue Matte, Performance Blue, Abyss Black, Cyber Gray, Ecotronic Gray, Atlas White Matte, Atlas White, Gravity Gold Matte and Soultronic Orange.

Hyundai Australia says the September 15 pre-sale – intended to coincide with the so-called “N Birthday”, the day the Hyundai N division was announced at the Frankfurt motor show in 2015 – will be the only opportunity to pre-order the Ioniq 5 N before launch.

“Vehicles will be built to order in each customer’s chosen combination of option(s) and exterior colour – there is no pre-configured specification for Ioniq 5 N,” Hyundai Australia says in its media release.

The first shipments of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N are due in Australia in the first quarter of 2024 (January to March), pending any delays.

It is powered by dual electric motors developing 478kW and 770Nm in N Grin Boost mode, good for a 0-100km/h acceleration time of 3.4 seconds.

While it is based on the same technical framework as the Kia EV6 GT, a series of upgrades – including a larger 84kWh battery with newer chemistry, upgraded battery cooling, and improved brakes – are claimed to make it capable of sustained driving on a race track without overheating or a degradation in power.

For all the details on the new model, click here to read our story published at the car’s unveiling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2023.

The 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is due to make its Australian public debut at the World Time Attack Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend, with a series of demonstration laps driven by famed drift and racing driver Keiichi Tsuchiya, who is nicknamed the “Drift King”.

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Jaguar electric-car reboot to include flagship super sedan by 2025 – report

An electric version of Jaguar’s flagship XJ sedan was axed at the eleventh hour two years ago – but now overseas reports claim the car-maker is interested in a battery-powered rival for the Mercedes-Benz S-Class once again.

Plans by British car-maker Jaguar to target Bentley with a new range of high-priced electric cars – intended to save the company from extinction globally – will reportedly include a four-seat electric luxury sedan to succeed its iconic XJ.

As previously reported by Drive, the ‘reboot’ of the Jaguar brand – due to commence next year – will spawn three new electric vehicles planned to rival Bentley and Porsche, after it failed to gain traction in pursuit of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Now UK publication Autocar claims one of the vehicles will be a full-size flagship sedan planned as an indirect successor to the XJ – alongside a sportier Porsche Taycan sports-sedan rival, and a luxury SUV.

While Jaguar had been working on an electric XJ as recently as late-2020, the project was canned in February 2021, just months before it was expected to be revealed – ending the nameplate’s 51-year history.

The vehicle was deemed out of step with Jaguar’s new Bentley-rivalling strategy – as it had been developed as a Mercedes-Benz EQS and BMW i7 electric sedan rival – and would have felt out of place in showrooms alongside the next-generation model range, according to executives at the time.

2019 Jaguar XJ

According to Autocar, sources close to Jaguar told the publication three models will be based on the company’s upcoming, ground-up JEA electric-car platform – a luxury SUV (one of which will rival the Bentley Bentayga), a “four-seat GT [sports sedan or SUV]”, and “an imposing limousine conceived in the mould of the XJ”.

The Jaguar insider also claims the electric super sedan will be all-wheel drive and have “no less than” 335kW, allowing for a 0-100km/h sprint time between 3.0 and 3.8 seconds.

A price between £100,000 and £125,000 ($AU195,000 to $AU250,000) has been suggested, though these claims are, for now, unsubstantiated.

As a part of Jaguar’s brand image reinvention – which will see the car-maker’s role restructured within the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) group – the upcoming electric cars will reportedly ditch the traditional leaping cat logo of old, instead adopting cleaner J-A-G-U-A-R lettering.

Autocar reports the as-yet unnamed electric sedan could go into production within two years, though it says it will not be the first model in Jaguar’s next-generation model range, which is due to commence next year with the four-door ‘GT’ sports sedan.

All generations of the Jaguar XJ

The move to the new range of higher-priced electric vehicles will spell the end for all current Jaguar vehicles – including the I-Pace electric SUV.

“When we launch our new JEA platform, the change from today on Jaguar is very dramatic,” JLR CEO Adrian Mardell told Autocar. “We don’t want older-looking cars and newer-looking cars.”

Throughout 2022, Jaguar sold 61,661 vehicles globally – down 28.5 per cent on 2021, 40 per cent on 2020 and 66 per cent down on its record of 180,833 sales in 2018.

Jaguar’s sales split within JLR compared to Land Rover has also fallen in recent years, standing at just 19 per cent in 2022 – albeit as production of more profitable Land Rover Defender, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport SUVs has been prioritised.

In Australia, Jaguar sales have slumped from 2274 vehicles in 2019 to 700 vehicles in 2022 – a drop of 69 per cent.

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Lotus Emeya electric car: Porsche Taycan rival to be unveiled next week

The first four-door sedan from UK sports-car specialist Lotus since the 1990s will be unveiled next week, with battery power and a focus on the Porsche Taycan.

The Porsche Taycan rival from British sports-car maker Lotus will be known as the 2024 Lotus Emeya when it is unveiled on 7 September, European time.

Known during development under the codename Type 133 – and previously mooted to wear the Envya or Etude names – the Emeya will be the company’s third electric car, following the Eletre large SUV and Evija hypercar.

A rival for the Porsche Taycan and Audi E-Tron GT, the new Emeya will be the first Lotus sedan since it applied its badge and twin-turbo V6 power to the Vauxhall Carlton (or Opel Omega), a distant relative of the Holden VN Commodore, in the 1990s.

While Lotus and Volvo’s electric-car spin-off Polestar are both owned by Chinese car giant Geely, the Emeya is not expected to share its underpinnings with the similarly-sized Polestar 5 electric sedan due next year.

Instead, the Emeya will be underpinned by the UK specialist’s Electric Premium Architecture, as used under the Eletre SUV.

The Eletre provides features including adjustable air suspension, active anti-roll bars, rear-wheel steering, and a limited-slip differential on the rear axle.

If it borrows mechanicals from the Eletre, the Emeya could utilise a 112kWh battery pack and two electric motors capable of up to 665kW, linked as part of an 800-volt electrical system good for rapid charging at up to 350kW.

As previously seen in spy photos, the Emeya features a coupe-inspired four-door body, akin to the Porsche Panamera and Audi A5 Sportback.

The Emeya is expected to borrow heavily from the Eletre’s screen-heavy interior, as well as lidar and high-resolution camera systems for semi-autonomous driving capabilities.

More details are due at the 2024 Lotus Emeya’s official unveiling on September 7, European time.

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2024 Volkswagen Golf GTI 380 farewells manual transmission, not for Australia

Volkswagen is giving the manual transmission a send-off with the Golf GTI 380 in North America – but Australians have been exclusively offered automatic versions of the hot hatch since 2018.

German car-maker Volkswagen will soon end production of its manual Golf GTI and R hot hatches, but not before farewelling the three-pedal hot hatch with a special edition variant – available exclusively in North America.

The Golf GTI 380 package pays homage to the eighth-generation hatchback’s codename (VW380) within Volkswagen, and will be added as standard to all manual-equipped 2024 Golf GTI grades sold in North America – the S, SE and Autobahn variants.

It will not come to Australia, as the last manual Golf GTI and Golf R hot hatchbacks were brought to local showrooms in 2018.

Compared to the Golf GTI’s existing grades, the 380 package includes adaptive suspension, gloss black 19-inch aluminium-alloy wheels (from the Golf R 20th Anniversary Edition), a gloss black roof and mirror caps as standard.

In addition to the six exterior finishes already available for the Golf GTI, Golf GTI 380 buyers are exclusively offered a new ‘Graphite Gray Metallic’ paint.

There are no changes inside the cabin or under the bonnet, with the Volkswagen Golf GTI 380 continuing to produce 180kW and 370Nm from its turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder ‘EA888’ petrol engine.

Drive is sent to the front wheels through a six-speed manual transmission – the last of its kind before the Golf GTI and Golf R switch to seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearboxes exclusively for the 2025 Model Year.

While the manual Golf GTI is also sold in Europe, the manual transmission in the latest Golf R was developed specifically for North America – where three-pedal models still account for a hefty share of Golf sales.

In June 2023, UK publication Autocar reported Volkswagen will drop the manual transmission from the eighth-generation Golf with its mid-life update in 2024 – 50 years after the nameplate was launched.

The decision to do so is understood to be related to the slightly higher emissions emitted by manual Golfs compared to their automatic counterparts – driving up Volkswagen’s fleet emissions amid ever-stricter laws being implemented in Europe.

While demand for the manual Golf GTI and Golf R is still steady in North America – where they are the only Mk8 Golf models available – it is declining elsewhere.

Unfortunately, Australians haven’t been offered the choice of a manual Golf GTI or Golf R since 2018.

The ‘Mk8’ Golf offered a manual transmission in base form only for Model Year 2021, before it was made temporarily unavailable for Model Year 2022 – and axed entirely for Model Year 2023 production.

A spokesperson for Volkswagen Australia told Drive last year the “Golf sells as close to 100 per cent auto or DSG [dual-clutch auto] as makes no odds.”

As reported earlier this year, manual transmissions accounted for less than 1.8 per cent of new passenger cars and SUVs sold in Australia throughout 2022.

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