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The design of the Tesla Model 3 is dramatically minimalist — but also controversial

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Tesla unveiled its mass-market Model 3 in March 31 in Los Angeles. We knew that the car would be smaller than the Model S and the Model X, and we could make a few assumptions about the general design, given that Teslas are supposed to look like, well, Teslas.

But when CEO Elon Musk finally rolled out the car, there were some definite surprises, from bumper to bumper. 

The design of the Model 3 could of course change before its hits the streets in 2017 (if it hits the streets on schedule). What we saw in LA was a pre-production version of the car. But for the most part, Tesla's "concepts" have entered production more-or-less unaltered. 

The Model 3, shown first as a sedan, has some controversial features. But it also has some cool and even spectacular ones. It's a dramatically minimalist, all-electric car, and it appears to be something that quite a full people would like to put in their garage: over 325,000 pre-orders, at $1,000 a pop, have come in,

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Matthew is a Business Insider senior correspondent who covers transportation (and chess, guitars, home-audio equipment, cocktails, and sometimes classic rock). His focus is the global auto industry, including Tesla, a company he has chronicled since 2007. He also looks after Business Insider's annual Car of the Year award, announced every fall. He's written for The New York Times, Slate, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, HuffPost, and CBS Interactive. He's commented on the auto industry for a variety of media outlets, including Sirius XM, MSNBC, Radio France, KPCC, and KCRW.  DeBord won the 2018 Ken Purdy Award from the International Motor Press Association. He's taught at New York University's Stern School of Business and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. His book "Return to Glory: The Story of Ford's Revival and Victory at the Toughest Race in the World" was published in 2017 by Atlantic Monthly Press and came out in paperback in June 2018. In the New York Times Book Review, Jonathan Kellerman called it a "page-turning synthesis of business book and adventure saga."
Mike is Business Insider's graphics editor. He majored in printmaking at Cornell University and earned an MFA in painting and drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He previously worked as an illustrator in Groupon's Humor Department. He regularly exhibits his drawings.