Tesla Model X: revolutionary SUV or jacked-up Model S?

THERE is no doubt that start-up electric car manufacturer Tesla is causing quite a storm in the automotive industry.

Far from being a gimmick, its range of high-performance luxury sedans have been gaining momentum and significant interest around the world in the past two years.

With supercar-like performance, record-braking range and some brilliant innovations, the Model S large sedan is making long established car-makers think about the way a car is conceived, designed and developed.

But now Tesla has breached yet another segment and the EV pioneer says its new Model X SUV is about to change the game again.

Tesla has revealed its third model with an SUV now joining the electric car ranks alongside the Model S sedan and the discontinued Roadster sportscar.

During a live webcast from the company’s headquarters in California, Telsa CEO and founder Elon Musk presented the Model X before a crowd of lively employees and customers who greeted the SUVs various features with almost evangelical enthusiasm.

With many of the Model S’s underpinnings, the Model X has similar performance to the sedan range with the most potent figures coming from the top-of-the-range P90D, which combines the output of two drive motors resulting in four-wheel drive and 568kW and 913Nm of torque.

Like the flagship sedan, the P90D can be optioned with Ludicrous mode, which allows the large SUV to crack 96km/h from standstill in just 3.2 seconds, a top speed of 250km/h and a range of 402km.

The Model X P90D will hit 96km/h in just 3.8-seconds, unless you dial in Ludicrous mode and then it accelerate almost as fast as a Lamborghini Aventador.

The Model X will also be offered as a more affordable 90D which gains a few more km of range but will still manage the zero to 96km/h in a very swift 4.8 seconds.

While the Model X is extremely impressive on paper and promises to deliver an SUV driving experience like no other SUV, we still have some reservations regarding its styling.

Take the enormously fast BMW X6M, which shares many mechanical and structural elements of the BMW 5 Series-based M5, but even when you look very closely, you wont find any styling cues of the super sedan peeking through the X6’s skin.

Its the same for Porsche’s Cayenne, the AMG-powered Mercedes GLE and Volkswagen Touareg V8 TDI torque monster, so why did Tesla make its Model X look like a Model S that has been on the pies?

Compared with its sedan sibling, the Model X has much more interior space, but is it the ugly sister when the more elegant Model S is in the room?

Love or hate the look of the Model X, you can't help but admire its clever gull-wing rear doors, which open upwards like the classic Mercedes-Benz SL Gullwing. But far from being a design folly, the “falcon wing” doors are a practical touch.

With a complex folding mechanism and special proximity sensors, the doors can sense surrounding objects such as neighbouring cars and low roofs, and carefully open to their maximum extent even when in confined spaces.

The car has three rows of seating with occupants accessing the back row via the head turning falcon doors and a sliding second-row function.

The “falcon wing” doors have two hinged points and can articulate to maximise the door aperture when in tight spots.

Not only is Tesla’s SUV fast and practical, the company also says it is the safest SUV money can buy, with a range of features that have won the Model X critical acclaim in some of the world’s toughest tests.

The US’s National Highway and Transport Safety Association (NHTSA) standard testing regimen awarded the Model X a five-star rating — the first time for an SUV. That score means that occupants have a less than 10 per cent chance of being seriously injured in a high-speed crash.

Thanks to its axle-drive motors and under-floor battery, the Tesla has an ultra-low centre of gravity which makes the vehicle very stable both when driving and if it is involved in a crash, as well as providing larger surface area to spread the loads applied in a collision.

With a drive motor on each axle, the Model X has all-paw traction allowing it to take occupants and gear to adventurous locations.

The Model X also comes standard with automatic emergency braking and side collision avoidance, which uses ultrasonic sensors along the side of the car to steer it away from an impending collision.

The sensors themselves have been reinvented, with the circular discs eliminated and placed on the inside of the body panels. “We invented a sensor that can see through metal,” said Mr Musk.

And if that level of crash safety wasn’t enough, the Model X can even protect occupants from airborne threats with a “medical quality” HEPA particulate filter, that is said to be another automotive first, and can filter gases, bacteria and viruses.

The Model X uses clever construction and some lightweight materials, but there is no hiding the mass of its huge battery with a 2468kg kerb weight.

Mr Musk claimed the first VIN 1 vehicle for himself but presented the first five owners with their vehicles on stage at the reveal, but Australian fans will also be able to own their own Model X, with the new SUV expected to go on sale here late next year.

Pricing is yet to be revealed, but the company has said the jacked-up model won't deviate greatly from Model S prices, which tops-out at $148,000 before on-road costs.

Like its super-sedan Model S, Tesla’s Model X has the potential to change the large SUV market all over the world, but while its technology is certainly revolutionary, does its styling do the engineering justice?

Daniel Gardner GoAuto.com.au

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