Why the Tesla 3 changes everything — and the entire world will want this car

Tesla has been promising a great electric car for the masses since its founding, and on Friday that car finally arrived.

Before a handoff of the first 30 Model 3’s to owners at Tesla’s factory in California, I got to spend about fifteen minutes behind the wheel of the latest car of the future (I had been given a short ride in a prototype Model 3 back in March of 2016 when the vehicle was revealed in Los Angeles).

I’ve driven all Tesla’s vehicles, from the original Roadster to the flagship Model S P1 00D. They’ve all impressed.

But the Model 3 is something else.

I drove a well-optioned car: a premium version with 310 miles of range, a 0-60 time of 5.1 seconds, and a lovely minimalist interior, all leather and open-grain wood, with tasteful brushed metallic accents, a 15-inch center touchscreen and no instrument cluster, and a roof made almost entirely of glass.

The midnight silver Model 3 I took for a spin also sported aerodynamic aluminum wheels and looks a lot like a smaller Model S, echoing the bigger sedan’s sloping fastback rear roofline. It’s a sharp car, unmistakably a Tesla.

When you slip into the driver’s seat, you’re immediately presented with ... not much in the way of distractions. There’s no key. Instead, you lock and unlock the car using your smartphone and an app. There’s a credit-card sized backup that can be swiped over the exterior near the door handle, which itself is recessed and chromed, but not self-presenting as in the Model S.

The steering wheel has a pair of multifunction, customizable, toggling thumb wheels that can be used to adjust mirrors and control audio functions (the sound system is quite good, by the way, with music streaming and the usual radio, but also USB and Bluetooth connectivity if you want to go that route). There are two control stalks, one controlling P-R-N-D — sort of like a smaller version of the old column shifter — the other handling turn-signals.