Tesla has added a new feature this week to the Model 3 Performance built at Giga Shanghai.
The top-of-the-line electric sedan now comes with heated wipers.
News of the addition was shared with @Teslascope, who posted this picture to Twitter showing the new feature alongside the heated steering wheel controls in the HVAC menu.
Model 3 Performance vehicles produced in China are now shipping with heated wipers.
First reported by @DriveTeslaca earlier this month as coming soon, we've now been sent direct reports of all vehicles delivered this week in China coming with the new wipers. pic.twitter.com/6PkquMmdhb
— Teslascope (@teslascope) January 29, 2022
Despite the name, the wipers themselves aren’t actually heated.
Instead, the area where the wipers sit when not active is heated using the same defroster elements you see running across your rear window. As the area heats up, the ice melts and the wipers become free to move again.
So far there have only been reports of the heated wipers appearing on Performance variants, but as with the release of other new features like the AMD Ryzen processor, we should expect to see them added to the rest of the lineup soon.
We should also expect to see this come to North America at both Fremont and Giga Texas, although the timing of when that will happen is unclear. It would not be surprising to see the first Model Ys built in Austin have it included.
As noted by Teslascope in their tweet, we first reported on this feature earlier this month, after we learned Tesla was testing it on manufacturer cars ahead of its official addition to the production lines.
Heated wipers aren’t entirely new to Tesla as the flagship Model S and Model X have had them for a number of years.
