Tesla’s top vehicle engineer says the company keeps thinking about a tri-motor Tesla Model 3 Plaid, even if it remains far down the list of priorities. Lars Moravy said the idea is something he thinks about “all the time,” but described it as a “work for reward” project that would have to wait behind bigger programs.
The comments put fresh attention on a version of the compact sedan that has long existed more as a concept than a product plan. Tesla’s engineering team sees the tri-motor Model 3 as a passion project that could be greenlit once higher-priority work is further along, with Cybercab, the next-generation affordable model and Optimus scaling taking precedence for now.
Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, floated specific ideas that could make the car possible, including carbon sleeves and permanent magnet motors. If Tesla ever approved the package, a Plaid Model 3 would likely move well past 1,000 horsepower and into sub-2-second territory, far beyond the current top-of-range Model 3 Performance AWD.
That existing Model 3 Performance AWD already delivers 510 horsepower, hits 60 mph in 2.9 seconds and offers 309 miles of EPA-estimated range, with pricing starting at around $54,990. Tesla would be trying to add another layer of speed to a car that is already close to the edge of what a mainstream sedan can do.
The catch is that Tesla has been here before. The company has a long history of concepts that live in engineering discussions for years before reaching production, and the Model 3 Plaid appears to be another one of those ideas for now. The Model S Plaid remains the only Tesla in the lineup in that performance territory, which makes any future tri-motor Model 3 both a technical challenge and a statement of intent.
For now, the project is exactly what Tesla engineers say it is: a reward for later, not a product today. The real question is not whether the idea excites the people building the cars, but how long Tesla keeps it parked while the company pushes the programs it has already put at the front of the line.
