

Hands-on video with Tesla’s electric Model X - drey
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/hands-on-video-with-teslas-electric-suv-the-model-x/

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hospadam
I can't help but thinking - when I was a kid, this is the kind of car I
thought we would have when I was an adult. I recently watched "Revenge of the
Electric Car" which heavily features Elon and Tesla. It's definitely an
interesting story - and one that deserves to be told.

Electric cars obviously have many (and some major) problems. But I can't shake
the feeling... I _want_ cars like this to win. I still personally don't think
I would want to spend this much on a car... but I'm really excited that we're
finally getting true innovation in the auto industry.

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SeanLuke
I'm not sure if the coolness factor of the gull-wing doors (as opposed to,
say, sliding doors) compensates for their incompatibility with a roof rack.

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Aloisius
Wow. That is kind of weak. Then again, my snowboards tend to ride inside and
frankly, I'm not sure an electric vehicle is going to make it up the mountain
to Tahoe anyway.

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ericd
Why wouldn't it? This thing will have torque that makes most gas cars look
like go karts, and have adaptive AWD to boot.

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rurounijones
Hey hey, don't knock the go-karts :) some of them go 0-60 as fast as a veyron.

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ericd
Haha good to know. Let's say moped, then.

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corin_
Really hated this video/interview. Sometimes when someone is being interviewed
it feels like they are directing the interview in their favour - in this
interview it feels like Musk is directing the interview because the
interviewer was incapable of doing it herself, and he was having to help her
out.

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jskopek
It's a shame the interviewer didn't know more about cars - there were some
pretty interesting questions that were left unanswered in that video.

For anyone wondering, 0-60 in 4.4 seconds isn't just fast for a minivan, it's
fast for any car. The 2012 BMW M3 - a race tuned sedan version of the 3-series
- will do 0-60 in 4.5 seconds on average. The gull wing doors are impractical
and (depending on who you ask) pretty hideous, but Tesla may have stumbled
into a huge market of young professionals who need a large car but don't want
to give up performance. Let's hope for their sake Tesla's spent as much time
working on safety!

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wazoox
Too bad that clearance in underground parking spaces means you'll be trapped
inside...

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jakeonthemove
Now this is an electric car I would definitely buy! The Roadster was meh (not
a fan of compact sports cars), the Model S was good, the X is excellent -
can't wait to see what they have in store next (a full sized SUV, maybe?).

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nextparadigms
The next one is Bluestar set for launch in 2015, a year after Model X. It will
be a $20,000-$30,000 sedan.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_BlueStar>

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freshfey
The front looks beautiful, but the back (which is ugly) reminds me of a
SsangYong Actyon
([http://www.netcarshow.com/ssangyong/2006-actyon/800x600/wall...](http://www.netcarshow.com/ssangyong/2006-actyon/800x600/wallpaper_05.htm)).
I'd love them to design the back similar to a BMW X6, which is also a
Crossover-SUV, but looks great. The performance and the price point is quite
impressive though and I'm heavily rooting for them.

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klausa
I know that it doesn't matter much, but as 19yo kid, it's the first mini-
van/SUV/whatever, that I have _I want it_ feelings towards to.

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xxbondsxx
Way too cool to deserve the "minivan" title

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noonespecial
I was thinking not useful enough to deserve the "minivan" title. Minivans,
like station wagons before them, are the world's schleppers. A big, flat
bottomed, flat topped box that you can yank the seats out of and fill with
junk... and then bungee more junk to the top.

Its a fine first step, but the winner in this space is going to be the company
that makes a simple box with batteries, motors and seatbelts that's so simple
and so cheap, it will make its IC predecessors look like steam power. I'm
betting Hyundai comes out of left field with something and surprises everyone.

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jstclair
Agreed; the largest advantage of electric car production is the comparative
simplicity of the underlying "sled" (can't link directly, but you can see it
if you go to <http://www.teslamotors.com/models/features#/interior> and scroll
down to the section "safety"). After several iterations of that, producing
cheap cars will be a no-brainer. I'd also expect rising differentiation
between "car companies" and "electric car sled producers".

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wr1472
The glare on that 17inch touchscreen was quite bad. I think the angle it's
mounted at doesn't help either.

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tfh
I really thought that the people at Tesla were smart enough to make usable
electric cars. Not toys for rich people.

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jomohke
The Model S is a more conventional sedan (no wing doors) and starts at $49,900
– which is getting closer to the middle class. Like with any new technology,
prices will come down with time.

<http://www.teslamotors.com/models/options>

