Inside the Model 3 Performance: Screen, Autopilot and the Stuff Nobody Explains

The 2020 Tesla Model 3 Performance has no instrument cluster at all. Everything, from your speed to your wipers, lives on one 15-inch landscape screen in the middle of the dash, and the car will happily do 0-100 km/h in 3.3 seconds while you are still working out which menu the headlights are in. This is the tour we give every first-time renter before they leave Parramatta.

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By Elie Arzoumlian, electric car expert at Drive Tribe

One screen, no gauges, and why that matters

Slide into the driver's seat of the 2020 Model 3 Performance and the first thing you notice is what is missing. There is no speedometer behind the wheel. No tachometer, no fuel gauge, no temperature dial. The dash is a single horizontal plank with a 15-inch landscape touchscreen floating in the centre.

Your speed sits in the top left corner of that screen. Your gear selection, battery state and remaining range sit nearby. The rest of the display is a map, a media player, a climate panel, or whatever else you have opened.

For the first ten minutes it feels odd. After that it feels normal, and going back to a button-covered cabin feels like going back to a flip phone. The trick is to set the important things before you drive, not while you drive.

What to set before you move

• Mirrors: tap Controls, then Quick Controls, then Mirrors. Adjust with the left scroll wheel.
• Steering wheel: same menu, same scroll wheel.
• Seat and wheel position: save it to your driver profile so it returns next time.
• One-pedal driving: decide now whether you want Creep, Roll or Hold stopping mode.

That last one catches people out. Hold mode means the car brakes itself to a full stop when you lift off the accelerator and stays there. Most renters prefer it once they try it, but it is better to choose it in a car park than at the first set of lights on Church Street.

The screen layout nobody explains

Tesla splits the interface into a few zones and once you know them, the Model 3 Performance interior stops feeling like a puzzle.

The left third is the driving information: speed, gear, battery, range, Autopilot visualisation. The right two thirds is the app area, which is where the map lives by default. Along the bottom is a permanent bar with climate, volume, and a row of shortcut icons you can customise by dragging.

The top bar holds your profile, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and the lock icon. Swipe down from the top for quick settings. Swipe up from the bottom for the full app drawer, which is where you find things like the rear camera, the energy graph, and the toybox.

The three menus you will actually use

Quick Controls is the one you want most often. Tap the car icon at the bottom left and you get wipers, lights, mirrors, steering wheel adjustment and the glovebox release in one panel.

Autopilot settings live under Controls, then Autopilot. This is where you turn on Autosteer, set your following distance, and decide how aggressive you want the lane change behaviour to be.

Driving settings are where Creep, Roll and Hold live, along with acceleration mode. In the Model 3 Performance you get Chill and Sport. Sport is the one that delivers the full 370 kW and 660 Nm. Chill softens the pedal for passengers who would rather not feel their stomach move.

Autopilot: what it does and what it does not

Autopilot in this car is two systems working together. Traffic-Aware Cruise Control holds your speed and follows the car ahead. Autosteer adds lane centring, keeping you between the lines on marked roads.

Engage it by pulling the right stalk down twice. The screen shows a blue steering wheel icon when Autosteer is active. Nudge the wheel and it disengages, which is deliberate. Tesla wants your hands on the wheel.

What it does not do is drive you to the Blue Mountains while you nap. It is a driver assistance system. You are still responsible, and the car will nag you if it does not feel torque on the wheel for too long.

On the M4 heading west out of Parramatta, Autopilot is genuinely useful. It holds a steady speed, keeps a sensible gap, and takes the dull part of the motorway off your plate. On suburban streets with faded markings, it is less reliable and you should just drive.

Track Mode and the performance side of the cabin

Track Mode is the reason the Model 3 Performance exists as a separate model. It is buried in the Driving menu and it changes how the car behaves in a fundamental way.

In normal driving, the dual-motor AWD system biases toward efficiency and stability. In Track Mode, it shifts torque rearward, sharpens the throttle, reduces the stability intervention, and lets you adjust the front-to-rear power split with a slider on the screen.

It also turns up the regenerative braking so you can slow the car without cooking the brakes. The energy graph on the screen shows you battery temperature, which matters because repeated hard laps heat the pack and the car will pull power to protect itself.

We do not let renters use Track Mode on public roads, and neither should you. It belongs on a circuit. But knowing it is there, and knowing where the menu is, tells you what kind of car you are sitting in.

When I drove it

The first time I pushed the Model 3 Performance properly was on the climb up toward the Spit Bridge on a quiet morning. The cabin is so plain and so quiet that the acceleration arrives without any of the theatre you get from a turbocharged six. No downshift, no rising exhaust note, just a shove in the back and a number on the screen climbing faster than you expect.

That is the strange thing about this interior. It removes almost every cue that tells you the car is fast, and leaves you with the speed itself.

Charging, range and what the screen tells you

The 2020 Model 3 Performance is rated at 567 km of range. Real-world figures depend on how you drive, the weather, and how much of that 370 kW you are using. We cover the honest numbers in our guide to the Real-World Range of a Model 3 Performance Around Sydney, and it is worth reading before you plan a long day.

The screen shows you two range figures. One is the rated number, which is the EPA-style estimate. The other is the energy graph, which projects your actual remaining range based on your recent consumption. Trust the graph.

Superchargers appear automatically on the map. Tap one and the car will precondition the battery on the way in, which speeds up charging. This happens without you doing anything once you set it as a destination, but it is worth knowing the car is doing it.

If you are new to all of this, start with Renting a Model 3 Performance as Your First EV: A No-Stress Guide. It covers the charging handshake, the cable, and the things that confuse people in the first hour.

What the cabin does well on a long drive

The seats are comfortable over distance. The glass roof makes the cabin feel bigger than the exterior suggests, though it also means the Sydney summer sun lands on your head, so keep the climate on auto and let the car manage it.

Storage is better than it looks. There is a deep well under the centre console, a glovebox you open from the screen, and a front trunk under the bonnet that swallows a carry-on bag.

Sound is decent but not spectacular. The cabin is quiet enough at highway speed that you notice tyre noise more than you would in a petrol performance car, because there is no engine to mask it.

The small things that trip people up

Every renter finds the same handful of quirks. Here they are, so you do not have to.

• The glovebox opens from the screen, not a handle. Tap the car icon, then Glovebox.
• The door handles inside are electronic buttons, not levers. The manual release is the lever below the window switch, for emergencies only.
• The wipers are automatic but the sensitivity setting is on the screen, not a stalk.
• The indicator and gear stalks are the same physical stalk on the left and right respectively. Pull down twice on the right for Autopilot.
• There is no start button. Sit down, foot on brake, select Drive, go.
• To turn the car off, put it in Park and walk away. It locks itself.

None of this is difficult, but none of it is obvious either, and every one of these has caught out a first-time renter at least once.

How the Model 3 Performance interior compares to the rest of the fleet

If you are choosing between our cars, the interior is a real differentiator. The Model 3 Performance is the most minimal and the most driver-focused. The 2025 Model Y RWD is the newer design with a cleaner centre console and more rear space, and it is the easier car for a family. The 2017 Model X P100D is chauffeur-only, seven seats, falcon-wing doors, and a very different kind of cabin altogether. We wrote a full comparison in our Tesla Model X P100D Review: The Family SUV That Beats Supercars off the Line if you want the other end of the range.

For anyone thinking further ahead, the six-seat long-wheelbase Model Y is not in our fleet yet, but we have explained what it is in Tesla Model Y L: What the Six-Seat Long-Wheelbase Y Means for Sydney Families. If it arrives, we will say so on the Tesla hire Sydney hub.

Which one should you book

Book the Model 3 Performance if you want the sharpest drive and you are comfortable with a screen-only cabin. Book the Model Y if you need space and a simpler learning curve. Book the Model X with a driver if you want the occasion and the seven seats.

Every rate, bond and fee is shown on the car's page and in the booking total before you pay, so there are no surprises at pickup.

Picking up and getting comfortable

The Model 3 Performance lives at Parramatta. You can collect it there or we can deliver it anywhere in Sydney. Either way, give yourself fifteen minutes in the driver's seat before you pull out into traffic.

Set your profile. Pair your phone. Pick your stopping mode. Learn where the wipers are. Then drive.

By the time you reach the first roundabout you will have forgotten there was ever a learning curve, and the screen will feel like the most natural way to control a car you have used. That is the trick of this interior. It looks like a compromise and turns out to be the point.