Tesla Malaysia shows traditional car brands how quickly it can get things moving.
Malaysian car enthusiasts are used to the same old routine – a global launch happens in January, six months later, the local authorised distributor starts to take bookings, and by December we have a rollout… This is the “optimistic” timeline for car launches here. In many cases the new car takes 2-3 years to ‘trickle down’ to our forgotten corner of the earth. Well, Tesla Malaysia is here to make a statement – if the global launch is today, you get to order your car in Malaysia tomorrow.
That was the case with the Tesla Model 3 facelift and now they’re repeating the practice once again with the highest spec Model 3 Performance, which was just unveiled a day ago. Yes, some may not like the way Tesla handles customer service or the fact that many major insurance companies won’t underwrite your Tesla vehicle – but there is no denying their strength in speed.
Speaking of speed, that’s the key focus on the Model 3 Performance. Yesterday there was a bit of confusion in the car’s official specification with some outlets reporting a century sprint time of 2.9 seconds and others saying it was 3.1 seconds. The truth is that two versions of the Model 3 Performance were released and both have differing specifications.
The first version is the North American model built in Fremont. This one has 510hp and 741Nm of torque and does 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds. It is powered by Panasonic battery cells in a pack that comes in at 82kWh.
The second version is the Chinese model built in Shanghai. This one has 460hp and 723Nm of torque and does 0-100km/h in 3.1 seconds. It is powered by LG battery cells in a pack that comes in at 79kWh. Unfortunately, this is the version that is bound for Malaysia. Still, the difference is negligible and 3.1 seconds is still supercar-fast for something priced under RM250,000.
That’s right, Tesla Malaysia officially opened the order books and gave us a price for the Tesla Model 3 Performance and the price is RM242,000. As for the range, it’s still pretty impressive at 528km, meaning it bests the base Model 3 Rear-wheel Drive by 15km.
What About Other Body Styles?
We’ve been hearing a lot about the Model 3, but its crossover sibling, the Model Y remains unchanged. Malaysian car rendering wiz Theophilus Chin put together a few examples of what the Model 3 could look like in alternate body styles.
Here it is as a wagon:
Watch it transform into a hatchback here:
Follow Theophilus on Youtube or Instagram to support his work.
