When first unveiling the Tesla Model 3 in March 2016, the prototypes came equipped with new wheels designed by the automaker.
Tesla brought to production two designs out of the three unveiled and the one that they didn’t make was arguably the most stunning.
CEO Elon Musk now says that they will bring it to market as an aftermarket option ‘later this year’.
After the original unveiling, Musk said that they “spent a lot of time on those wheels” and that they plan on bringing them to production.
Tesla ended up bringing to production the aero wheels as 18″ standard wheels on the Model 3.
According to design patents published last year, Franz Von Holzhausen, Tesla’s Chief Designer, and Bernard Lee, Tesla Design Manager, were credited with designing the aero wheels.
The automaker also made the five ‘v’ spoke wheels unveiled on the original prototypes as 19″ Sport wheels option.
Von Holzhausen, Lee and another Tesla Design Manager, David Imai, are credited with designing this one.
But Tesla also unveiled a third wheel design that was only displayed on a bright red model that wasn’t a working prototype:
This design was credited to Joonas Vartola, a car designer who has left Tesla in 2016 to become an independent designer in Finland.
It was believed that Tesla abandoned the design in favor of the other two, but Musk now says that it is coming back later this year:
Will do it later this year. Too much on plate right now. Will be available as an upgrade from service.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2018
On occasions for Model S and Model X, Tesla had wheels that were only available on the automaker’s online shop and owners could order them and have them installed at a Tesla service center.
It sounds like it will be the case for this wheel design.
Musk said that there’s currently too much on Tesla’s plate to bring the new design to production right now.
The company has been keeping the options available on the Model 3 to a minimum in order to streamline production during the ramp up.
With the launch of the Model 3 dual motor AWD and Performance versions, Tesla added the first new options to the Model 3 since the launch of production last year.
The performance version also includes new 20″ performance wheels.
The two new Model 3 versions are coming to production in 12 to 16 weeks. After that, Tesla is expected to start expanding the options at this, like this wheel design.
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