Tesla Model X
Just the Facts:
Model X seats seven adults in three rows and has cargo room under the hood and in the rear.
The crossover styled EV will come in rear-wheel and all-wheel drive versions, the latter with separate, independent motors for each axle.
The company pegs 0-60 mph acceleration at 4.4 seconds; price not set.
HAWTHORNE, California — EV maker Tesla Motors unveiled its third vehicle Thursday evening in a cocktail party atmosphere aimed at drumming up enthusiasm — and $5,000 deposits — for the slope-backed crossover that the company calls the Model X.
The all-aluminum electric car-cum-wagon, which shares about 60 percent of its parts with the company's Model S sedan and its profile with BMW's X6 crossover, took the stage at Tesla's Los Angeles-area R&D center next door to company co-founder and CEO Elon Musk's private — and profit-making — rocket company, SpaceX.
It will not only be the industry's first battery-powered sporty utility vehicle when it goes into production in 2014, it will introduce a new wrinkle on the overhead gullwing door system made famous by Mercedes-Benz with its 1954 300SL.
The Tesla Model X also will introduce high performance into the crossover segment with a 0-60 mph acceleration time of 4.4 seconds for the top-of-the-line model equipped with Tesla's biggest and most powerful battery pack. That's the same pace as clocked by the lighter Model S sedan and is 0.2 seconds faster than a Porsche 911 Carrera.
Tesla's marketing people also hope the Model X will help dispel range anxiety among well-heeled potential EV buyers: It will come with a base 60-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack capable of delivering about 200 miles ( 322 km ) of range and an optional — and pricier — 85 kwh pack that will boost the range to around 285 miles ( 459 km ).
Taking the stage following a brief appearance by California Gov. Jerry Brown — a supporter of alternative-energy vehicles — Musk addressed an audience of close to 1,000 supporters, employees, reporters and more than a few potential customers at the invitation-only event as he characterized the Model X as a CUV with "more room than a minivan, more style than an SUV and more performance than a sports car."
Pricing hasn't been announced, but Musk told Inside Line in an interview after the unveiling that the rear-wheel-drive version will cost "within a few thousand dollars" of the Model S sedan with a similar-sized battery.
The midrange 60kWh, 230-mile Model S lists at $67,400 before a federal tax credit of up to $7,500, and the 85 kwh, 300-mile version of the sedan lists at $77,400 before the credit. The AWD Model X, which carries two electric motors and a more complex power and torque management system than the rear-wheel-drive model, will be pricier, but Musk wouldn't even hint at how much more it might be.
He did say, however, that because of the Model X's larger size and 10-13-percent weight gain (and range loss) compared to the Model S, there won't be a third model, the "beginner" version that in the Model S carries a 40 kwh battery, delivers 160 miles of range and is priced at $57,400 before incentives.
Musk said customer deliveries of the Model S will begin in July, with initial limited production of a special "signature" edition of the Model X to start in late 2013 and regular retail model production and deliveries to begin in early 2014.
While much of the Model X comes from the Model S, one innovation is the unusual "falcon wing" door system. It uses double-hinged doors for the rear passenger compartment — where a minivan would have its typical sliding doors. The doors are hinged just below the window to allow the bottom half to first flap open a few degrees at the bottom of the door frame to break the seal. Then the entire door assembly on each side lifts straight up and the top-mounted hinges furl each door outward, ending up in a position that looks for all the world like a "T"-shaped hang glider wing atop the vehicle's roof.
The design permits an opening that enables a 6-footer to stand upright on the floor of the car beneath the raised doors and that enables the doors to be opened with just a few inches of side clearance.
Musk, the father of five, said the system was designed with parents in mind — to help make it easier to install child seats and squirming children — as well as to facilitate ingress and egress by full-sized people using the second and third rows of seating.
Musk said Tesla would start taking reservations for the Model X on its Web site at noon today — the same process it used for the Model S. But he told a cheering audience Thursday that anyone at that evening's unveiling who wanted to place an order could — and several dozen reportedly did. Musk pointed to one man who was leaving the event and said he was a customer — not a dealer — who had flown down from Canada just to get an early order placed. "He's buying three of them," said a grinning Musk.
Inside Line says: All the right ingredients are there — save, perhaps, great looks. Now all Tesla's got to do is build 'em and sell a few tens of thousands more.
