European cars can look perfectly at home on American roads. Not all of them, mind you, but certainly some, and probably most. The inverse, on the other hand, tends not to be true: most American cars look entirely out of place on the other side of the Atlantic.
But seeing the new Tesla Model 3 on the floor of the 2018 Paris Auto Show, we’re convinced it belongs as much in Europe as it does in America, and as much as any European car does.
Any regular (or even occasional) reader of this or just about any other car or tech site will likely already be familiar with the Model 3 – and the controversy surrounding it.
Tesla’s highly anticipated entry-level model has been more hyped than… um, whatever it is that Kim and Kanye are doing these days. The baby brother to the Model S that put Tesla on the map, the Model 3 is a mid-size sedan and the hottest-selling electric vehicle on the market.
It’s powered by either one electric motor at the rear (good for 271 horsepower or 202 kW) or one at each axle (for a combined 346 hp/258 kW) and through-the-road all-wheel drive.
The new Performance model goes even further with 450 hp (340 kW), and Tesla brought one of those to Paris as well. And there’ll be more accessible versions to follow, with a smaller battery – capable of 50 kWh instead of 75 – and a price tag promised to start at just $35,000 (in the US).
Before those more affordable models arrive, though, Elon Musk and company will have to overcome the trouble they’ve encountered in getting production of the existing versions up and running smoothly, and get the Model 3 into the hands of its eagerly awaiting customers – in the US and abroad.