New Tesla Model 3 Video & Pictures, via Motor Trend

Originally published on EV Obsession.

Motor Trend was recently granted exclusive access to the Tesla Model 3 for a photo session at the under-construction Gigafactory — resulting in some great new daylight images of the much-anticipated electric car.

The coverage also makes some interesting points about the current state of the Gigafactory’s construction, and the enormous scale of the lithium-ion battery-pack production facility. The pictures of the Motor Trend journalists on the seemingly vast white roof are certainly worth a look, in my opinion. They really seem to bring home the scale of the thing.

Here are some excerpts detailing the in-person, daylight impressions of the journalists and photographers:

“It looks much better in person; pictures don’t do it justice,” said Motor Trend staff photographer Robin Trajano, without one trace of irony. “The proportions don’t really work in picture but in person looks really good. I wouldn’t mind owning one.”

His boss, Motor Trend’s visuals manager Brian Vance, went for specifics, “It really does have a lot of his Mazda concepts in it, like the lines.” Vance is referring to Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s head of design, who was at Mazda prior to joining the company. “I can’t believe the entire roof is glass. It’s two pieces (three if you count the windshield) but in the right light, looks like one piece.”

Video producer Travis Labella quipped, “My first impression? That I’m going to be seeing a lot of these on the road very soon. It’s the future. It’s my kind of future.”

Our always thoughtful Reynolds remarked that the Model 3 is a “well-metered blend of classical automotive cues and future-car fantasies. The nose has attitude and its flanks are streaked with athletic, visual tendons — but it’s the tall greenhouse and glass-bubble roof that will define this car. This is not another slot-window sedan saying ‘Don’t see me.’ The Model 3’s square yards of glazing shatter that isolation, opening you to the whole, passing world. Taken together, its this new visual vocabulary for the modern electric car.”

The whole coverage is great, and features a substantial number of very clear new images of the Tesla Model 3 and the Gigafactory. On that note, the official Gigafactory opening ceremony is getting closer….