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Tesla Reveals Its Model X Gullwing SUV
thecarchik writes "The new, all-electric Tesla Model X crossover, which was introduced on stage by Tesla CEO Elon Musk (also the man behind SpaceX), isn't exactly a step toward the mass market. But it does take on premium utility vehicles with three rows of seating for up to seven, better maneuverability than a Mini Cooper, and a 0-60 mph time of just 4.4 seconds—that's faster than a Porsche 911, Musk jeered. But the real oohs and ahs of the evening came when Musk showed the Model X's much-anticipated 'falcon doors' — essentially gullwing rear doors, behind normal hinged front doors." The expected price before tax-credit shenanigans? $60,000-$90,000.
At first I read X Wing.
What is "bettb |rer maneuverability"?
I fail to follow your point; "Do you want an electric car? Do you need a little more space than the Model S can give you? Here, have a Model X." If your complaint is that it's an SUV, then it is a complaint without merit -- there are certainly practical advantages of this platform over that of the Model S (granted, not everyone that buys one will make use of them). If your complaint is about the gullwing doors, then I still disagree -- the take less space to open than a normal door, offer stand-up exits for mid-row passengers, and allow direct access to the third row. This last point is actually a big problem for anyone with two car seats -- if you can't get to the back row with the seats installed, you'll can't use it anyway.
I suppose lastly, if your complaint is that it's an electric vehicle, then get out.
Aikon-
It's unusual to see /. mention a company that has a lick of design sense unless it's either Apple or someone on the defending end of a patent infringement claim from Apple. So when can we expect to see a lawsuit over the rear doors having too clean of a profile?
(To the humor-impaired: the second sentence is a joke.)
...when you're writing a game...tweak the difficulty of "Easy" to something [your mother] can cope with. -- onion2k
Because their founder has a lot of money to keep them afloat while they build up their technology and product line, and they are busy selling their drive-trains to companies such as Toyota.
If they could just make the roadster in this price range...THEN talk to me about getting an electric car!!
I'm just not interested in a 'family car'.....which is anything with > 2 functional seats.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I can't wait for Jeremy Clarkson to review this Electric Sports Car/SUV with Gull Wing Doors. I am for sure he will have some great superlatives for how amazingly stupid this thing is. This SUV is the answer for the question no one asked.
mnewberg.com
Or is that just marketing-speak?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Whence comes your 30 mile driving range? The Model X is offered with a 60 kWh or a 85 kWh battery pack, the same as the top two options for the Model S. In the Model S, those packs give it 270 miles and 370 miles range respectively. Granted, the Model X is a larger, heavier vehicle, but a 90% drop in range? I don't think so.. probably closer to 10%. Also, the top two drive-train options have dual motors, which may offer better efficiency overall.
Elon Musk just doesn't seem to add up.
He is only in his 30s, is on his second marriage, has 5 kids is the CEO/venture capitalist for 2 companies, both doing innovating engineering.
I'm guessing it is just a matter of winning the lottery by being born rich, born intelligent, born with a innovative/push forward temperament, born to parents who will bring those gifts out ( or at least not fuck up the kid enough to shut those things down ) and lots and LOTs of caffeine.
Am I missing something?
How does any person, let alone one his 30s end up with all of those situations?
So can I jump in one of these and expect to drive at a steady 70mph for over 300 miles? If it can't, then it can't replace my diesel car.
I don't care if it can do 0-60 in 4.5 seconds. I *do* care if it can do 0 to 250 miles in 4.5 hours.
Dude 0-60 in an SUV in 4.4s not too shabby and only 0.3s behind the 2012 corvette.
With the Model S you can; depending on how you drive, the 60 kWh pack would be tight, but the 85 kWh pack should handle you no problem (going on your second 250 mile requirement). Those same numbers aren't out for the Model X, but as I said, they are the same battery packs, and the total efficiency will be in the same ballpark.
Also, note that just because one particular non-extended-range electric vehicle does not meet your particular driving requirements does not mean it is a useless endeavour, or even that it will fail in market at all. There are plenty of other people out there that don't drive 300 miles a day (I for one wouldn't want to); the base Model S would do all the driving I need fine, except when I go home for the holidays. Even then, the 85 kWh battery pack would handle that no problem. If you're going on a really long trip, say, once a year, you could always just rent.
Gull wing doors take less width than standard hinged doors, because the pivot point is near the centre-line of the vehicle. Yes, they need more height -- outdoors, this is a non-issue; in your garage, it might be. Better measure before you buy one.
With respect to sliding doors, they don't offer the same level of third-row access -- if you look at any imagery of the Model X, you will see that the rear doors are about twice the width of the amount of vehicle remaining behind it. You need something for your sliding door to slide on.
Because their founder has a lot of money to keep them afloat while they build up their technology and product line, and they are busy selling their drive-trains to companies such as Toyota.
While continuing to do novel things (like the all-wheel drive train of the Model-X using two electric motors).
I see them sort of as Xerox PARC, except dealing with the automotive industry instead of computers, and they actually produce things you can buy.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
According to: http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2012/0210/Tesla-Model-X-Era-of-the-all-electric-SUV-is-arriving 80-100 mile range. Probably enough for about 90% of everyone's one go trips. I really don't get this crazy worry about electric: oh but I can't go for 300 miles on a charge. How often do you do 5 hrs of non-stop driving anyways? If the technology for rapid charging comes out it wouldn't matter much either since you could just stop at a restaurant for an hour break and recharge. At any rate for the very rare times you need to drive 5hrs at a go run a car. The other 340 days a year your electric will be fine.
he busted his ass getting to where he is. Instead of bemoaning a setback it probably caused him to try again, if not harder and smarter. You won't find the likes of him posting to some website bitching about how things aren't fair, how he don't get his fair share, how others should be giving he stuff, and so on and so on.
The biggest barrier to success in this country is yourself. The second biggest barrier is the government at all levels, the third is your competition. Money comes in somewhere on this list, not much further down.
You end up there by doing. This means that you put in many weeks if not years of ridiculous hours. You do it with a clear goal in mind. You compare your current position to your goal at all times and you make decisions on what to do next based on that.
See my tag, if you live comparing yourself to others you will never be happy.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Other than "oooh" factor, the main reason for the gullwing doors appears to be extra headroom when getting in the 3rd-row seats.
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
If you would like to drive it further than it's engineered limit per fill up maybe you should think of a work around instead of expecting the manufacture to include it in a product not designed for you.
The answer will likely end up being a small petrol powered generator trailer hitch thingy for sale or rent. I think some government agency has said the average driver goes less than 30 miles in a day. How many times in the lifetime of a vehicle does it end up needing more than 300 miles of capacity? If the cost of adding that extra capacity was not so cheap for todays vehicles they wouldn't have it, and there's no good reason for it to be standard in the vehicles of tomorrow.
Range 250-300 miles.
Seriously, I commute a 100+ miles a day. And this will work just fine for me.
That's just about enough to get you from Philly to Pittsburgh. And with the money you save on gas, you can always rent a mini-van for a longer trip...
And the expected cost is not that much more than a fully-loaded Toyota Sequoia.
Not a car for you then. Who cares. There's 7 billion people on the planet. Not everyone has the same driving habits as you. There's a reason that GM has 57different models of cars. If they can get 100,000 people to buy a Tesla, they would probably have a pretty good start. If I had a little bit more money, I would seriously consider buying one, because they fit my driving habits perfectly. For a family with 2 cars, it wouldn't matter if one of them would only be of use to commute back and forth across the city. Anybody who goes out of town can just use the other one. On the rare occurrence that both people are going out of town at the same time, somebody could rent. The savings alone in fuel and maintenance would make up for the cost of the rental. Just because I don't have and iPod or an iPad, or a Rolex, doesn't mean they are terrible products. It just means they are aiming for a different market.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Correction: according to teslamotors.com, the range of the Model S on these batteries is actually 230 miles and 300 miles respectively.
From looking at the pictures, assuming the gentleman next to the car is 6 ft tall, then the doors don't go much past 7 to 7 1/2 feet. Tall, but not unworkable.
This signature is a waste of 42 characters
Who cares what kind of doors it has? The important thing is that it's electric and has the seating of a large SUV.
The soccer mom crowd doesn't need long range for ferrying family around, so this would be a great market, and would get a lot of gas guzzlers off the street if they can shave another 20-30k off of the price. The current tiny all-electrics would be terrible for lots of kids, multiple car seats, etc.
Literally, not one story about Tesla going out of business has come true, not one story about how the Model S would cost a Billion dollars to build, not one story about the lack of sales between the end of the Roadster (no more Lotus bodies) and the beginning of the Model S eating through their cash too quickly.
Try reading the stories about their technology, how even if their car sales tanked they'd have a profitable business on the battery pack and drivetrain alone. The runaway battery pack fire risk on the Chevy Volt, can't happen with a Tesla battery pack. Tesla fixed that problem on the Roadster back when GM was still saying it couldn't be done.
Tesla does have a $450 million loan from the DoE to build the manufacturing and come out with the Model S, that's probably kept them defying gravity longer than some folks would like. That and Musk running himself ragged, living with friends and putting all his cash into the business for a while.
So can I jump in one of these and expect to drive at a steady 70mph for over 300 miles? If it can't, then it can't replace my diesel car.
I don't care if it can do 0-60 in 4.5 seconds. I *do* care if it can do 0 to 250 miles in 4.5 hours.
You wouldn't replace your diesel car with a gas or diesel SUV, either, would you (unless you need the space)?
This is a soccer mom vehicle. They don't drive 70mph for 300 miles. They drive 30-50 mph for lots of small trips, which is what an electric is really good for. Think of this as an electric replacement for gas-hog SUVs, and it makes more sense.
When you think about it, this is the ultimate way for a rich person to use their money to flip the bird at other cars as they go by.
* My car is bigger than yours!
* My car is cooler than yours!
* My car is faster than yours!
* My car is greener than yours!
Etc, all at once. The other car might possibly best them in one category, but definitely not all. You just *know* there are plenty of rich people who would throw down money on something like that.
Why must all aquatic villains play the organ?
That's one of my biggest peeves about Slashdot. "I wouldn't use this, therefore it can't possibly be of use to anyone!" Grow up already.
Check out my world simulator thingy.
I was under the impression that mounting the motor in the hub, while an elegant engineering solution to the problem of power transmission, isn't necessarily the optimal solution for automotive applications because of the increase in unsprung mass. It seems like, even with advances in power density in motors, that hub mounting would increase that mass by a large amount, not to mention potentially bringing additional cooling system complexity.
Use the money you save not buying any gas and rent a car for a week. ;-)
It's about time someone created a car with plenty of room to get in and out. Now I don't need to have my mom help me tuck in my fat rolls just to fit through the tiny doors of our Hummer.
See reply below; gullwings need 11" to open. Try opening your car door 11" and squeezing out (even if you aren't really fat). Note that car doors are usually at least 6" thick to begin with, if not more.
Obviously, with a name with Elon Musk , they guy's destined to be a Bond villain.
Why else would he be building ICBMs ?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I see one big problem with these doors. They are cool, and functional (much easier to get in and out in a tight parking space), but they're only for the back seats! The front doors are still conventionally hinged, so you don't get the tight parking advantage (only your back-seat passengers do), and if you drive alone or with one person as most people do 99.9% of the time, those cool doors will almost never get used.
Also, note that just because one particular non-extended-range electric vehicle does not meet your particular driving requirements does not mean it is a useless endeavour, or even that it will fail in market at all.
I'll add another point: most households have more than one car, and very few ever face situation where two family members have to take *different* 300+ mile trips on the same day.
So if electric has any advantages at all in day to day driving, then one electric and one ICE car in a two-car family is for all practical purposes just as versatile as two ICE cars. Sure, once in a blue moon you'll want two ICE cars. But *more* than once in a blue moon one of those ICE cars will in the shop having it's complicated and temperamental engine, transmission or exhaust system repaired.
It's probable that most two car houses with one ICE car and one EV with at least a 200 mile range have no cause to feel range anxiety.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Oh my god pedantic schmucks!
How bout we just assume the original AC said "Did you just compare a Corvette to a large and tall four door family vehicle of indeterminate class?" The point still stands. The original post was a ludicrous "I'd rather have a corvette." Well sure, he may rather have a corvette, but a two door sports car is not something that shoppers will be comparing against a *seven passenger* vehicle.
+1 Disagree
I am not a fan of Wing doors, but I love the dual motor AWD.
This gives you:
Total power control at both ends with no center differential issues (binding, too much slip, too slow reaction).
4 wheel regen. I read one study that showed a significant increase in regen capture moving to AWD.
Umm, no. The Tesla Model S has a range of 160-300 miles, depending on the battery pack. All of the current models of Corvettes have a faster 0-60 though (from 3.4-4.2 s depending on model).
I suspect that driving in such a way as to outrun a 'Vette might cut into that range figure quite a lot.
Probably not as bad as you would think. Electric motors are very efficient at giving high torque, while for a gas engine it's really inefficient when doing the same.
The assumption was a steady 55 mph, so is certainly the maximum possible range, so I'm sure the actual range would be less if you were driving in the city.
The Porsche 911 only has a six cylinder engine. You need the turbo to get respectable performance.
I can only imagine you've never driven one.
It isn't that the issue isn't raised, the problem is that the size of the battery pack is so huge that you need some kind of pallet truck to move the thing around and a specialized storage location to be able to recharge these battery packs.
From what I understand about the Model S, the idea that eventually such a service might show up was considered, where battery packs could be removed with just a few bolts being taken off and a single connector cable with a "plug" that could easily be disconnected and reconnected. I don't know if the process has been seriously explored in terms of somebody coming up with a business plan and actually setting up shop to perform this task, noting that at the moment each battery pack that is being produced can only be used for a single automobile manufacturer. If these battery packs could become somewhat standardized, perhaps this idea might get a little more merit.
This certainly isn't a new idea, and yes, it is being considered. Perhaps you want to start up the business yourself?