China-made Model 3 said to get upgraded steering wheel, power tailgate

Tesla may be preparing to make some upgrades to the China-made Model 3 that will help improve the car experience for owners.

According to Weibo car blogger @不是郑小康, the next hardware to be updated for the China-made Model 3 includes: steering wheel, center console 2.0, headlights & taillights, power tailgate, chrome blackout, Octovalve eight-way valve heat exchanger, and double glazing.

The user claims that all of these updates were made for the North American market first and then the China-made version followed. But the double-layer glass is unique to the China-made version and helps improve the Model 3's much-maligned noise problem.

Join us on or

Back in July, Elon Musk responded to a request from a Model 3 owner from China for a power tailgate upgrade. The owner had a leg disability that made it difficult to use the Model 3's manual trunk.

Musk said at the time that Tesla would install a power lift tailgate on the owner's Model 3 for free. This spurred speculation that the feature would eventually become standard on the Model 3.