
Tesla’s $140,000 Model X SUV Does 0-60 in 3.2 Seconds - hack4supper
http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/29/teslas-140000-model-x-suv-does-0-60-in-3-2-seconds-hits-the-road-starting-tonight/
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Cookingboy
It's pretty impressive overall, but for an SUV (people very often take them
for longer camping/ski/road trips) to have a maximal range of only 260 miles
(super charger stations won't be very common on the way to Yosemite), and base
price of $35k MORE than a BMW X5M (while being slower and has way less range),
this is truly a niche product for a very niche demographic.

I think the technology involved is fantastic, but it feels more like a product
where they built it simply because they can.

EDIT/Disclosure: I own shares of TSLA. I was hoping of a X5/Q7/Caynne
competitor that starts at $50-$70k, not a X5M/Caynne Turbo competitor which in
themselves are very, very ridiculous and niche cars.

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reklawnos
I don't think this is really aimed at people who "take them for longer
camping/ski/road trips," though.

For a while now, SUVs, like the Audi Q5 and the BMW X5 that the Model X is
trying to compete with, have been basically a "cooler" alternative to
minivans. The key feature they share is the space and seating that they
provide, but having off-road capability is useful to a small subset of SUV
owners and is just there to add to the cool factor that differentiates it from
a minivan.

Tesla is trying to grab the wealthy, 30-to-50-something parents whose focus on
luxury and style prevent them from buying a minivan, which would probably suit
them and their driving habits better than an SUV. Take a look at wealthier
suburbs of San Francisco (e.g. Marin) and you'll see tons of luxury SUVs
without a speck of mud on them.

The ads for these SUVs really reflect this trend. Audi demonstrates the
prevalence of SUVs-as-kid delivery machines:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soJs3ZUYtLI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soJs3ZUYtLI)

While Lexus tries to present the same car Audi was bashing as sexy but safe:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rohl8v_IGKk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rohl8v_IGKk)

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mikeyouse
Most importantly for these purposes, the range on the Model X is sufficient to
drive from Palo Alto to Lake Tahoe (220 miles) or Yosemite (165 miles) without
issue.

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ssmoot
Towing a small pop-up camper? At highway speeds the whole trip?

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if you ran out of juice before reaching
Yosemite.

Grades and highway speeds have a huge impact on range IME. Not to mention an
extra 500lbs in passengers, a couple hundred lbs in camping gear, and that's
not even getting to the camper.

The type of miles you're driving definitely matters. A gas vehicle is most
efficient around ~60mph. Maintaining maximal range in an electric vehicle is a
bad bet if most of your driving is highway miles. At least if my Nissan Leaf
experience is relevant.

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mikeyouse
Tahoe could be trouble with a camper in tow, but the distance to Yosemite is
only 2/3rds of the published range for the Model X -- I'd be shocked if there
wasn't sufficient range to get there. Curb weight for the X is ~5,400lbs, call
it 5,500lbs with driver.. Adding 5 passengers averaging 100lbs (family of 6)
and 200lbs of gear would only add ~13% to the vehicles weight which would only
minimally impact range since drag is a much bigger determinant for highway
trips.

I found a nifty little site that takes into account elevation / vehicle
weight, etc. for the actual route. Looking at the Model S, base range on the
road to Yosemite with normal driving is 240 miles. Adding 700lbs to the car
results in a range of 210 miles. So a 40% increase in vehicle weight only
corresponds to a 12.5% decrease in range. This can be partially mitigated by
driving at a "3/10" instead of a "5/10" in terms of range-extending, which
results in about 225 miles of range with the same weight.

[http://www.jurassictest.ch/GR/](http://www.jurassictest.ch/GR/)

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lordnacho
This is just awesome. I'm hoping to get one of these next time I need a car,
which will be in a good few years.

If you compare Tesla's X and S to other cars, nothing really compares. How
many cars fit 7 people yet accelerate like a Ferrari? How many cars
effectively have 2 boots without being a van? How many cars cost a tiny
fraction of the price to drive the same distance?

At that price point, you tend to be looking at either a little sports car, a
luxury tourer, or a family tractor. This compares favourably with all of them.

At the moment the downside isn't even that bad: battery life will probably
improve with time, and you can already go as far as most people need. Yes,
your grand tour of the continent will take a few more stops, but pretty soon
I'm guessing it will be close enough. And already the car drives itself.
That's a huge, huge win.

I am expecting some competition though. I can't imagine the established
manufacturers letting Tesla take the market in electric cars. That will
hopefully bring down the price and increase variety.

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ZeroGravitas
I wouldn't bet on the established manufacturers, they can cruise along making
money for a long time without needing to change their mindset. There's a good
video talk by one of the Tesla founders who points out that the reason they
can build a car is that the big manufacturers outsourced everything, and so
they can buy wheels, suspensions, wipers, windows etc. from the same places as
the incumbents.

The only thing they didn't outsource, the thing they think of as their core,
is the engines. Which is the one bit that Tesla, and the future, neither needs
nor wants.

But I'd expect to see a few more new names in this area, like BYD (a battery
company, so you know their priorities are well aligned).

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aresant
If you missed the live stream they just posted it here:

[http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx](http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx)

The gull-wing-in-a-tight-space starts at ~18 mins in

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Cookingboy
Serious question, can you still put a bike/ski rack on top of your roof? The
more I learned about this car the more I went "that's cool, but WHY????"

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mikeyouse
Check out right at 25:00 into this video, they have a pretty slick bike / ski
mount that attaches to the rear of the SUV and still allows access to the
trunk:

[http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx](http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx)

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klaussnta
As much as I admire the engineering that went into the design of this vehicle
I'm not looking forward to sharing the road with inexperienced drivers with
vehicles of this size and weight with this much acceleration.

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butwhy
Yes, because inexperienced drivers tend to buy $130k vehicles.

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txrit
Inexperienced drivers and drunk drivers. Where I'm from there are _many_
inexperienced drivers with lots of money due to political connections. In fact
inexperienced drivers are almost a target market for cars in that price range
here. There are also brats with rich parents. There's also pretty widespread
drunk driving across the board.

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jasonoliveira
It's a very nice car, but I could buy two Porche Cayennes for the same price.
Or a bungalow in Manitoba. or a houseboat.

If Apple is looking to compete with Tesla with their rumored iCar, we should
probably expect a similar price. Someone will probably buy them, but that
person won't be me.

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scrumper
This is exactly the car I want: a six seat electric car with enough space for
my wife and me, our two kids, a brace of grandparents, a stroller, pack &
play, whatever crap we buy from the county fair we visit, and enough range for
a weekend trip. It's ideal. It is, however, _twice_ the new list price of the
used Mercedes GL that currently fills that role for us and even zero fuel
costs don't make up for that over 5 years. It's a downpayment on a house, or a
four figure lease. Not for us.

I'm pretty excited for the future though. This kind of thing will get cheaper.
Tesla may be able to swallow the risk of offering warranties on used vehicles
as more long-life reliability data comes in.

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garrettheaver
I'm really not sure how the Model X is going to perform. I really don't think
the European market will go for the gull-wing doors. On a sports car yes, but
on an SUV? I sincerely doubt it but I'd be happy to be proven wrong if it
works well even in our über tight parking spaces and seriously narrow lanes.

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olau
It seems to work well in the video here - the doors are pretty flexible,
equipped with motors and sensors so they can adapt:
[http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx](http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx)

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garrettheaver
Yeah it looks pretty good there alright. Like I said, I'd be happy to be
proven wrong but a few things spring to mind.

1\. Once fully extended, the door seems to protrude out from the car a bit
which may cause a problem if you're tight against a wall. I'd be curious how
they have solved this? It may be that we just can't open the door similar to a
regular door when you're forced to park too close to the wall?

2\. Similar to above, since the door protrudes a bit, what happens when there
are Xs parked beside each other?

Other than the door questions I agree it looks like a superb SUV. If Tesla can
manage to convince people on the door design and it reviews as well as the S
did, then they've another great product on their hands.

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ulyssesgrant
Strange the author didn't mention anything about the impressive safety ratings

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txrit
Oh great, another urban tank, this time with much more power.

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andygates
I'm torn between "yay, another Chelsea hyper-tractor" and "yay, a super-cool
future-car". But mostly "cool!"

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lafar6502
doesn't look like SUV at all - just a hatchback

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mixmastamyk
Looks like they improved the front styling... wonder if the interior has been
improved.

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pinaceae
Until some idiot soccer dad/mom kills someone by not being able to handle such
accelaration.

Killed Paul Walker (gas engine).

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Syrup-tan
I assume there are multiple steps you have to take in order to reach that
performance, ie having to put it into ``Ludicrous mode'', then forcing the
pedal to the floor. I assume it isn't something that could happen easily on
accident.

It's also notable that Paul Walker wasn't driving when he died.

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wingerlang
He didn't actually say that Walker drove the car.

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melted
$140K and "falcon wing" doors only in the back. Epic fail. They seem like an
afterthought that way. Sure, you can open them in tight spaces, but you won't
be able to get into the car because the front door is basically the same as
any other car door. Why bother with the back doors then?

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djrogers
The back doors have to be longer to accommodate both rows of rear seats.
Shorter front doors open in tighter spaces than longer traditional back doors
would.

Same reason they out sliders on vans and minivans - bigger openings.

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tempestn
Also you won't have child car seats in the front seats. Having rear doors that
get completely out of the way even in very narrow spaces will be huge for
parents of young children. Squeezing yourself through a narrow opening into a
front seat is comparatively pretty easy.

