Tesla China is upgrading every Model 3 it sells with a larger 16-inch touchscreen and a new light gray interior option, and it’s turning on up to 2.2 kW of AC power export across its entire Model 3 and Model Y lineup in the country.
The US Model 3 gets none of it. Tesla’s American Model 3 still has a 15.4-inch display, and it’s shut out of the vehicle-to-load feature Tesla launched stateside in August.
What changed in China
Tesla announced the changes on October 1 with a set of four marketing posters on its official Chinese channels.
The main hardware change is the center display. Every current Model 3 trim in China now gets a 16-inch touchscreen, up from 15.4 inches. Tesla says it has a higher resolution and a higher refresh rate, but it didn’t give actual numbers for either.
The second change is cosmetic. Chinese buyers can now option a light gray “premium interior,” which Tesla pairs with a black fabric headliner. That’s the same move Tesla made on the US Model Y Premium back in January, when it added a black headliner and the 16-inch screen to the 2026 Model Y.
Then there’s power export. Every Model 3 and Model Y currently on sale in China can now push out up to 2,200 W of AC power. Tesla’s example is a camping setup running a 600 W rice cooker, a 1 kW hot pot, and a 600 W electric kettle at the same time.
Owners need to buy Tesla’s AC power-export adapter to use it. The only exception is the three-row Model Y L, which doesn’t need the adapter.
More discounts on top
The upgrades came bundled with a new round of incentives. Model 3 orders placed by October 31 get 5,000 yuan (~$740) off the final payment.
Tesla is stacking that with 5-year 0% financing (79,900 yuan down, from about 2,377 yuan per month), an 8,000 yuan insurance subsidy on the RWD, Long Range RWD, and Long Range AWD, an 8,000 yuan paint credit, and a choice of three charging perks.
After all that, Tesla advertises the Model 3 from 222,500 yuan (~$33,000). But the list price didn’t move. The base RWD is still 235,500 yuan, so the headline price only works once you count both the final-payment discount and the insurance subsidy.
Even after discounts, it’s well above BYD’s new Formula S, which starts at 189,900 yuan for the RWD sedan.
The competition is fierce in China and Tesla is launching new features and incentives there first.
The US Model 3 falls behind
In the US, the Model 3 starts at $36,990, and Tesla’s own spec page still lists a 15.4-inch center touchscreen.
V2L is the bigger gap. When Tesla brought vehicle-to-load to the US in August, it limited it to the Model Y Premium, Model Y Performance, and Cybertruck, at 2.4 kW through an $80 adapter for the Gen 3 Mobile Connector. The entire US Model 3 lineup was left out. In China, every Model 3 gets it.
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