Tesla Motors launched its first SUV Tuesday at its factory in Fremont, California. From falcon wing doors to a Biochemical Defense Mode, the Model X is jammed pack with features.
Chuck Squatriglia and Alex Davies of Wired had the day’s news:
The world’s first luxury electric SUV is gorgeous. It’s futuristic. And once again, Tesla Motors is redefining the electric vehicle.
The Silicon Valley automaker has teased us for years with the Model X, and tonight it finally gave the world its first look at the production model, then handed six customers the keys.
Those people now own a $130,000 electric vehicle that will go 250 miles on a charge, carry seven people and haul more stuff than anyone but a hoarder might want with him. And although the X shares much of its DNA with the impressive Model S P90D sedan, in many ways it eclipses that phenomenal car. It’s not just the design, which is futuristic without being weird. It’s not just the performance, which is holy shit fast. And it’s not even the dramatic “falcon” doors that lift like the wings of a bird.
It’s how all of those features come together in a vehicle that somehow makes an SUV not just cool, but desirable.
But then, that’s what Tesla does.
“The mission of Tesla is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport,” CEO Elon Musk said at the car’s reveal, held at the company’s factory in Fremont, California. “It’s important to know that any kind of car can go electric.”
Scott Collie of Gizmag laid out perhaps the coolest feature of new car — its doors:
Looking at the Model X, one feature really stands out. They might look like pure show-car theatre, but the production car will be taking flight with falcon wing doors that, as well as making your family car look like a Mercedes SLS, offer up easy access to the second and third row seats.
They appear huge, but Tesla says the doors’ dual-hinge design mean they can be opened in a garage without hitting the walls. If you have a particularly small garage, a special ultrasonic sensor has been set up to make sure your wings aren’t clipped by the roof.
Business Insider reporter Bryan Logan discussed more of the car’s features:
The car features much of Tesla’s existing cutting-edge technology, with an all-electric powertrain, seating for seven, and an extra-large center screen that puts the vehicle’s controls at your fingertips.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk opened the event Tuesday night with comments on vehicle safety, an area in which sports utility vehicles have come a long way in the past two decades.
Musk says the Model X has achieved a five-star safety rating “in every category,” making it one of the safest vehicles on the road.
The Model X features automatic emergency braking and a suite of active safety sensors and radar designed to help the SUV detect and avoid road hazards that could lead to a crash.
In keeping with Tesla’s pro-environment mantra, the crossover comes with a supersize air filter that Musk says is 300 times as good at filtering harmful airborne bacteria, viruses, and smog. “The net effect of the air-filtration system,” Musk said, “means you have an air cleanliness level that’s comparable to a hospital operating room, in the car.”
“When it’s operating at max capability, we can’t even detect any viruses, bacteria, or spores,” Musk said.
It is air filtration on a level that prepares you for even the most extreme of conditions. “You just press the Bioweapon Defense Mode button. It’s a real button,” Musk quipped.
Mike Ramsey of The Wall Street Journal wrote about how quickly Tesla will be able to produce the supercharged SUV and what that means for the company:
Tesla has only just started building the SUV, and Mr. Musk said production now is very slow. He wouldn’t make a guess as to how many the company might be able to build this year but said orders placed today for the vehicle would take 8 to 12 months to fill.
Tesla has already lowered its annual sales forecast to a range of 50,000 to 55,000 vehicles. A slow start to production of the X could cause another reduction.
The SUV is Tesla’s third product and is important to the company’s efforts to make money and grow sales. The SUV took two years longer to produce than originally forecast as the company took on several manufacturing challenges, like building the doors that lift upward from the vehicle. The doors actually sense how close other objects are and can either raise straight up or spread out like wings.
The giant windshield—which allows the driver to look up and see sky—presented manufacturing problems as well. It has layered glass that blocks the sun. And because there is no metal until a third of the way along the roof, the sun visors had to be attached to the side pillars, making them difficult to engineer.
Some of Tesla’s customers have been waiting for more than three years, having put down $40,000 to be among the “signature” group that gets the vehicles first. These customers ordered fully loaded vehicles that cost $132,000. There is another, higher-tier version—the “ludicrous” edition of the Model X—that goes from zero to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds. It will cost $142,000.
Check out Tech Crunch‘s Greg Kumparak test driving the Model X here.
