The company also defended the car against concerns about excess complexity and weight. There's "always room for refinement," according to Tesla, but the Model 3 has battery protection concerns that might not be present in other reference cars. It further pointed to government testing showing that the Model S and Model X had the lowest probabilities of injury out of "any cars it had ever tested," indicating a strong safety pedigree.

The claimed improvements suggest that Tesla's quality has come a long way since the earliest days of Model 3 production, when it was struggling to produce significant volumes of acceptable cars. That's no mean feat when its manufacturing is ramping up on a week-by-week basis. At the same time, this isn't entirely reassuring if you're one of the early adopters. While it's hard to completely avoid first-year production quirks, the change in quality suggests you'll be considerably happier with the fit and finish if you're a patient buyer.