New 18” Pinwheel Refresh Caps

[Zoomit]

There’s a lot of chatter about the various changes coming soon for Model 3, but little about the new caps to go over the 18” Aero wheels. We know that Tesla is calling them Pinwheel Refresh Caps in the EPC, with no picture yet, and also that Greentheonly indicates we’ll “need to look somewhat hard to see the differences.”

Who’s going to post the first picture?

Since there’s only one part number with a quantity of 4 listed, I have no hope these new caps will be directional. That would have been nice visually, but I’m not surprised Tesla would stick with the simpler logistics solution.

For those curious, the EPC first referred to the 18” wheels as “PINWHEEL MAGNETO” and the caps as “18 INCH PINWHEEL CAP”. That later changed to the current “AERO” wheels and “18 INCH AERO WHEEL CAP”.

 

[AxlxA]

There's already plenty of pictures of this sports wheel cover. I can't tell if it's 18" or 19" though.

 

[Zoomit]

There's already plenty of pictures of this sports wheel cover. I can't tell if it's 18" or 19" though.

The pictures I’ve seen posted to date have 19” tires.

This picture is of a 19” wheel and thus is different than the new 18” Pinwheel Refresh Cap.

 

[Zoomit]

And here we go...

 

[Zoomit]

 

[WilliamG]

Those new Aero covers look awesome. That’s how they should have looked in the first place.

 

[EfficientWatts]

Any idea if they fit on the existing Aero rims? I am very willing to order a set to refresh my covers if so.

 

[Zoomit]

Any idea if they fit on the existing Aero rims? I am very willing to order a set to refresh my covers if so.

Yes they do. These are just new caps. The underlying 18” Aero wheels are the same, based on recent Fremont pictures of cars destined for Europe with black trim and Aero wheels.

The original cap was $25 per corner, so it seems reasonable these would be the same.

 

[Zoomit]

These refreshed caps are flatter than the originals, likely giving them a very slight aero drag advantage. Being able to swap the caps will make it possible to test them back-to-back but the difference will be challenging to measure. I can’t imagine they’ll be more than ~1% different at highway speeds.

 

[Gizmo35]

I feel the aeros are the ones to get now. I wouldnt buy the new 19inch sport wheels anymore as they are not visually appealing to me. The aeros in the pics above look awesome.

 

[McMoo]

I would love to get a set of these covers! Hopefully Tesla sells them at some point otherwise I’m sure some owners will still go without covers and will sell them. I’ll be going to my local store to check them out in person once the cars start being delivered.

 

[MatildaModelY]

Strange, if you zoom in on the new aero wheel pic in the configurator, size of the tire sure looks like it says 225/35ZR19.

 

[zhu-]

Strange, if you zoom in on the new aero wheel pic in the configurator, size of the tire sure looks like it says 225/35ZR19.

View attachment 599991

The plot thickens.

 

[joesgarage]

Is that picture photoshopped then? It does not make sense, seeing as the 19" size for the model 3 is 235/40. In the configurator it says '18" Aero wheels'.

 

[WarpedOne]

Strange, if you zoom in on the new aero wheel pic in the configurator, size of the tire sure looks like it says 225/35ZR19.

I guess tesla is/was considering going with narrower tires, but 225 would also need narrower rims.
Maybe they weren't ready and tesla skipped this part of the upgrade.

225/35R19 have 4,2% smaller diameter than current tires and would need FW update to show correct speed.

 

[Dave EV]

Is that picture photoshopped then? It does not make sense, seeing as the 19" size for the model 3 is 235/40. In the configurator it says '18" Aero wheels'.

Tesla appears to use the same tire and then overlay the wheel, as Ubertubine 20" performance wheels also display a 19" tire.

 

[WarpedOne]

Yes, but no model 3 uses 225 tires ...

 

[Zoomit]

The plot thickens.

No it doesn’t. There’s nothing to see here.

Is that picture photoshopped then? It does not make sense, seeing as the 19" size for the model 3 is 235/40. In the configurator it says '18" Aero wheels'.

They aren’t pictures. They’re renders.

Tesla appears to use the same tire and then overlay the wheel, as Ubertubine 20" performance wheels also display a 19" tire.

Yes, all the new wheel renders (18, 19, 20”) use the same sidewall model for their renders and all say 225/35ZR19.

Yes, but no model 3 uses 225 tires ...

The sidewall markings are fake and not relevant.

 

[MatildaModelY]

No it doesn’t. There’s nothing to see here.

They aren’t pictures. They’re renders.

Yes, all the new wheel renders (18, 19, 20”) use the same sidewall model for their renders and all say 225/35ZR19.

The sidewall markings are fake and not relevant.

Ok case closed

 

[McMoo]

Going to a 225 would make some sense to eek out every extra mile of range, not saying it’s happening since it doesn’t seem like it is, but I could see them doing it to get an extra 1% of efficiency.