The Tesla Model 3 interior is unlike anything we have ever seen before

• The Tesla Model 3 has the most minimalist interior we've ever seen in a production car.
• Not every decision was brilliant, but most were, and the ultimate impression is extremely satisfying.
• The Model 3's interior design is a powerful symbol of both the company's philosophy and what it believes cars should be like in the future.

Tesla has completely reset expectations with the interior of the Model 3, the company's mass-market vehicle.

We'd already spent some time with the car at a launch event for the $35,000 all-electric machine at Tesla's California factory in July. At the time, I wrote that it was the most minimalist auto interior I'd ever seen.

I experienced the Model 3 for only about 15 minutes back then. But this Tesla let us borrow bright-red Model 3 for several hours. Myself and my colleague Ben Zhang drove it around Manhattan and New Jersey, and we took in the zen-like interior environment, where subtraction is everything.

This was a $55,700 version of the Model 3 - the company isn't yet manufacturing or delivering the base $35,000 car, just the $44,000 premium-level vehicle. So although the interior was obsessively minimal, it was made of the best bits and pieces Tesla has available.

Here's what we thought: