Tesla is once again making indicator stalks available for the Model 3 – though only as a retrofit kit for selected cars in China, and at a price of around £270.
The move comes nearly two years after the controversial removal of the stalks in the 2023 ‘Highland’ update of the Model 3. That refresh brought a host of changes including improved sound insulation, revised suspension tuning, a redesigned front end, ventilated seats and even a rear passenger touchscreen. But while the updates addressed many long-standing criticisms, Tesla’s decision to drop the indicator stalk was one of the most divisive elements.
Instead, signalling was reassigned to small touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel, while gear selection moved to the central touchscreen. Tesla argued this reduced cabin clutter and modernised the layout, but for many drivers, the trade-off in everyday usability was a step too far. The familiarity and convenience of a physical stalk, honed over decades of motoring, proved difficult to abandon.
This was not Tesla’s first experiment in deleting stalks. The brand’s yoke-equipped Model S, launched in 2021, also ditched them in favour of steering wheel-mounted controls. But whereas that model was already a niche, high-end offering, the mainstream Model 3 carried far greater expectations of practicality and everyday usability – and it was here that the change proved most controversial.
The backlash gathered pace after the updated Model Y, codenamed Juniper, launched in 2024. That car reinstated stalks as standard, despite simultaneously removing the gear selector lever. The return of indicators suggested that Tesla had been forced to respond to customer complaints. In February this year, the firm’s engineering boss Lars Moravy even admitted that “maybe we deleted too much.”
The new retrofit option now brings stalks back to some of the affected Model 3s – though, crucially, not all of them, and only in China for now. Whether Tesla will expand availability to the UK and the rest of Europe remains to be seen.
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