Tesla's Model X Is Our Egg-shaped Future and It's Here

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Tesla finally rolled out its third model, the Model X last night to loyalists and some media (not us) Tuesday in California.

The SUV’s falcon doors and ludicrously insanely fast 0-60 mph times (3.2 seconds for a car that weighs 5,441 pounds) may get most of the headlines, but the rest of the car’s features and specifications are just as impressive. Tesla says that the batteries in its Model X — which are the same as the Model S — are good for 250 miles. The combined torque for its front and rear engines motors, which produce 259 hp and 503 hp respectively, is more than 700 pound-feet.

And the air filtration system inside may protect you from mustard gas, or something.

Tesla says that the Model X will achieve all 5-star safety ratings, a first for an SUV (nearly every SUV has four or fewer stars in rollover safety) and will use automatic emergency braking to avoid frontal collisions, even at high speeds.

The SUV also uses active aerodynamic features to reduce the car’s drag to 0.24 cD. It’s rear spoiler retracts at speeds higher than 45 mph to cut more efficiently through air, and keeps the car hunkered down all the way to its 155 mph limit.

According to the automaker, the doors on the Model X will open automatically as the driver approaches the car, though it isn’t clear if all doors will open on their own without touching the handles (because that could get annoying). Early media reports on the falcon-wing doors say that although the doors seem to manage well without knocking into things, entry and exit seems particularly slow in cramped spaces.

The Model X can seat up to seven in its three rows and its 17-inch touchscreen will likely be the center of attention because holy crap that’s enormous. The 17-inch screen commands 17 interior speakers inside the cabin of the Model X.

If you can’t fit everyone you know within the car’s seven seats or its cargo area (Tesla didn’t specify interior dimensions) the Model X is rated to tow up to 5,000 pounds, provided you can find a place for the hitch.

Assuming you can get past the “automaton egg” look (I still say Alien Mr. Burns), all that electric splendor can be yours starting at $80,000 all the way up to $140,000 for a Founders Series model if you plunked down money in 2012.



Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Shaker Shaker on Oct 01, 2015

    This car is ridiculous, like all of Elon Musk's pipe-dreams! For the same money, I could buy an Escalade, have it converted to a diesel with twin stacks, and have enough left over to buy the entire yearly supply of fuel for the state of Maine. Those doors are pretty stupid, too, as I frequently encounter 20" snowfalls that would be absolutely impossible to clear off the vehicle, as I was born with no arms. You know these things run on COAL, don't you? If people start buying these things, they'll have to build more coal power plants to charge them - how 'bout that, greenies? And when everybody gets home at 6:00PM and plugs them in, all the wires in the neighborhood will MELT, then what? Musk should stop this charade, and do business like Donald Trump - real added-value stuff, like tall buildings with "MUSK" on them, that's what a REAL AMERICAN would do!

  • Paddan Paddan on Oct 01, 2015

    Studebaker had a Model X too. It was called the Lark.

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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