Tesla Switches to Fabric, Removes Rear Screen and More in Model 3 in Mexico; Possibly Prepping for $25K Model

Tesla has made some significant changes to the Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive that’s sold in Mexico – in fact, they’re launching an entirely new textile interior option for the market.

There are several significant changes throughout the interior, but let’s take a look at the new textile interior first.

Tesla has been well-known for offering vegan leatherette in all its vehicles up to this point, as the only interior option – primarily in black and white for the Model 3 and Model Y, but also in cream for the Model S and Model X.

This new textile interior is now the only option available for the Model 3 RWD in Mexico – coming in gray and is listed as “Standard Fabric”. This textile-only option is also not available for the Long Range or Performance variants, or on any of the Model Y variants.

Tesla didn’t stop at the seating material with these changes. They also included other, somewhat surprising changes throughout the interior. There is no longer a semi-premium interior for the RWD Model 3 in Mexico. This means all the Alcantara fabric has been replaced with the same textile fabric as the seats.

Alongside the lack of vegan leatherette, Tesla has also removed heated front and rear seats, as well as the heated steering wheel. This isn’t a surprising move in a warmer market like Mexico and it makes a lot of sense as Tesla makes its way into other markets that don’t require heated elements such as India and parts of Africa. However, due to the fabric textile seating, ventilated seats have also been removed from this model.

While we can see the advantages of not having leather-like seats in the Mexican heat, the lack of ventilated seats is a big disappointment.

There are a few changes that strike us as odd as well. The rear screen is powered by the same infotainment unit that powers the front screen, so the cost for Tesla is extremely minimal. Think of the rear screen as an additional display on a computer.

Tesla is unlikely to create a custom harness that would power the rear screen for this vehicle, so it’s possible the rear screen could be retrofitted in these models.

In addition, Tesla has replaced its RGB ambient lighting with a white-only version. This seems like an odd choice, especially as in the open market, a color-capable LED strip versus a single-color strip is only the difference of a few dollars. While this may not provide significant savings for Tesla, it could be a tactic to upsell their higher trim levels that include the RGB feature.

The colorful, customizable ambient lighting feature likely helps sell quite a few cars. Tesla has recently been expanding the capabilities of its ambient lighting feature. With update 2024.26 Tesla added the ability to choose the brightness of the ambient lighting, as well as adding the option to have it only turn on at night time. Both of these features are expected to remain in this Mexican version. However, the ability for the ambient lighting to turn red when Service Mode is active won’t be available.

In addition to ambient lighting changes, Tesla is limiting its acoustic glass, which helps reduce road noise, to just the front windows.

The audio performance in this model has also been reduced. The number of speakers has gone from 17 down to 9. In addition, both subwoofers have been removed and there is now a single amplifier.

In exchange for dropping all of these changes, Tesla has dropped the price of the Model 3 RWD by $50,000 MXN – which is approximately $2,680 USD at the time of writing. We’re not sure that these significant changes will have a positive impact on Mexican sales. Tesla may be testing the waters with these changes, and if it bodes well for sales, we could see these changes be applied to other factories and markets as well.

Most interesting is that this new format could be the standard for Tesla’s upcoming next-generation vehicle – which is expected to be priced at around $25,000 USD. Earlier this year, Tesla pivoted and said that its next-gen vehicle will be built using the same manufacturing process as current models instead of the new unboxed process, which Tesla is now saving for the robotaxi.

The changes we’re seeing with this Mexican model will be something to keep an eye on, as the lack of a heated steering wheel and seat heating won’t be taken too well in most European countries or northern US states, nor in China and other colder climates. We’ll keep an eye out to see if this model makes its way into any other regions. For now, the Model 3 Long Range and Performance come with all the usual features we’ve come to expect.

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