With America’s charging infrastructure still a work in progress, total driving range is still an important selling point for EVs. Tesla has long been a leader in this area, and it aims to maintain its impressive range with a new model. However, that model only seems to be headed to China, at least for the time being. As reported by multiple outlets, Chinese government documentation indicates the company is releasing a version of the Model 3 with even more range called the Model 3+. Still, although it appears to just be a Chinese model, we have some hope it could come here.
The Basic Details On The Model 3+
The news seems to have been broken by Car News China, which cited documentation released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It revealed the model name and that the vehicle would use a single rear motor with rear-wheel drive, and apparently a nickel-manganese-cobalt lithium-ion battery from LG. The news outlet went on to say that this model’s motor would be the one used in the base rear-wheel-drive Model 3 for China, which also uses a lithium-iron-phosphate battery made in China. That motor is significantly less powerful than the one in the American Model 3, with the Chinese car seemingly making 260 horsepower to the American’s 295.
Exact battery details did not seem to be given, but Car News China suggests that the battery will simply be the one used in the long-range all-wheel-drive Model 3 both in the US and China, which it says is rated at 78.4 kWh. CarScoops suggests that it could be the slightly larger 79.7-kWh pack in the American long-range rear-drive version. The current Model 3 range champion in China is the long-range all-wheel-drive version is rated for 753 kilometers, or 468 miles. That’s on the highly generous CLTC test. In the US, the long-range all-wheel-drive Model 3 goes 346 miles on a charge, and that’s with more power, as the American car is rated at 425 horsepower to the Chinese car’s apparent horsepower. The American long-range rear-drive car goes 363 miles.
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We Think It Could Come Here
With America’s massive tariffs on Chinese cars and parts, Model 3s with Chinese-made LFP batteries have been a no-go for a while. The company is working on bringing LFP battery assembly to the US, but that hasn’t quite reached fruition. However, this supposedly extra-long-range Model 3+ clearly uses NMC batteries that are already available in some form in American cars. It seems like the only real change would be the lower-output motor, and as long as that motor is produced at one of Tesla’s plants outside of China, it would probably be a breeze for the company to add it to the US line-up. The big question is whether it would be worth it. Car News China does say that the less powerful motor has lower consumption than Tesla’s more potent ones. So it seems entirely feasible that it could top the 363 miles of the high-output long-range rear-drive car. If the range brushed close to or past 400 miles, it could be a winner. If the range was only a little better, though, say by less than 20 extra miles, it might be a harder sell, and would add complication to manufacturing by introducing another combination. There’s also another site, CNEVPost, which suggests that the Model 3+ will actually use a motor with basically the same output as the current American long-range rear-drive car. If that’s the case, then, well, we already have the Model 3+, and there’s nothing more to discuss. We’ll just have to see what happens when the car launches.
Source: Car News China, CarScoops, CNEV Post
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