Clever technology touches, like self-closing doors.
Hype can be both a blessing and a curse. It brings attention, anticipation and in the automotive world that can lead to big sales. But it also builds expectation and can add pressure to a hungry audience.
Few cars in recent memory have arrived with the level of hype as the Tesla Model X. Elon Musk certainly got the world’s attention when he showed off the world’s first luxury electric SUV back in 2012, complete with dramatic ‘Falcon Wing’ rear doors. It looks spectacular and immediately fired up interest.
But the hype has subsided now the Model X has been available in Australia for almost two years, plus it is about to face the challenge of new luxury electric SUVs from the likes of Jaguar, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. So how does the Model X really stack up when you strip away the hype and live with it? Read on to find out.
Tesla currently offers three versions of the Model X locally - 75D, 100D and P100D; which is what we’re testing here.
Pricing starts from $205,700 for the P100D but that’s before you add anything to it, including taxes. The basic car with 20-inch alloy wheels is actually more than $250,000 once you add taxes and our test car ended up at $283,755 with options and drive-away costs.
That puts the Model X in rarified territory above the likes of the Maserati Levante and Range Rover Autobiography LWB but below the Bentley Bentayga and Lamborghini Urus. Whichever way you look at it, it’s a lot of money for an SUV.
Standard equipment includes 20-inch alloy wheels, air suspension, a power tailgate, heated front seats, heated steering wheel, navigation with live traffic updates and Bluetooth.
It also gets what Tesla describes as “Bioweapon Defense Mode” that consists of two activated carbon filters to block any pollutants from the cabin.
Tesla also includes 400kWh of Supercharger credits for Model X owners across its Australian network.
Safety includes autonomous emergency braking but if you want the Enhanced Autopilot functionality that is a $6900 extra.
Tesla covers the Model X with an eight-year/unlimited kilometre warranty for the battery and drive unit and an eight-year/160,000km warranty for the rest of the vehicle.
However, the biggest concern I have over the car is build quality. Obviously the brand’s production problems with the new Model 3 are well documented but even after more than three years on sale it seems the Model X isn’t smooth sailing. Our test car’s boot didn’t sit flush (picture below), with the driver’s side sitting significantly higher than it should. It was an obvious problem and one that you wouldn’t accept on a $28,000 car let alone one costing $280,000.
Simply getting inside the Model X is unlike any other car on the market. It includes keyless entry and ignition as standard, but it’s under-selling it. The driver’s door can be programmed to open itself as you approach and close itself when you press the brake pedal. The car automatically turns on when you sit in the driver’s seat.
Then at the rear you have the Falcon Wing doors, which are the car’s biggest party trick, opening outwards and up. They are different from Gullwing doors because they double hinge at the top, which allows them to open at a variety of narrower and lower angles if you are in a tighter spot.
While undoubtedly spectacular they do have some downsides when you start to live with them. For starters while reasonably efficient they do take a lot longer to open and close than a traditional door. They also create a potential hazard as the sensors that are supposed to detect obstacles and pause during closing don’t always work - as the bump on this reviewer's head can attest.
Doors aside the Model X interior is unusual in other ways. For starters the windscreen extends well beyond typical, finishing up above the driver’s head. While that makes for a more light-filled and spacious feeling cabin, with only a slight tint and small sun visors you often find yourself with the sun glaring down on the top of your head or in your eyes.
The huge 17-inch infotainment touchscreen in the centre of the dashboard controls all the car’s functions - audio, air-conditioning, maps and telephone - so the layout is very simple. While intimidating at first the Tesla system is fairly intuitive to use.
The switchgear is still the same thing you find in Mercedes (a hang up from Daimler’s former stake in the company) but overall it feels like a modern luxury car inside.
The seats are nicely finished but are disappointingly flat with little in the way of lateral support. Seating flexibility is good though, with the option of three layouts - five, six or seven seats.
Five seats are standard, seven seats costs $4100 and the six-seater layout (with or without a centre console in between the second row chairs) is an $8300 option.
Our test car had the six-seater with console option which is a good family pick if you only have two children. Access to the third row is easy with one button to move second row seats, but once in there’s limited headroom in the back because the roof tapers so dramatically.
As is the case with many seven-seat SUVs the boot is a respectable size with the third row seats stowed but shrinks to a frustratingly small area with all seats up. Fortunately for the Model X there’s the ‘frunk’ (front trunk), an extra luggage area under the bonnet.
Underneath the frunk is the electric motor for the front axle while there’s a second motor for the rear axle. Together the two motors give the Model X supercar levels of performance - 568kW of power, 931Nm of torque and a 0-100km/h time of just 3.1seconds.
That acceleration time is in the brand’s famous ‘Ludicrous Mode’ setting which is another of Tesla’s clever branding exercises that helps create hype around its cars. Ludicrous Mode allows for maximum performance from the motors, and with all that torque available from zero rpm the Model X can launch with a ferocity that few SUVs can match.
But using Ludicrous Mode has a negative impact of your battery life and therefor range, so Tesla has the lower ‘Sport’ and ‘Chill’ settings for the powertrain. Even in Chill it feels strong on the road, similar in performance to what you get from a six- or eight-cylinder turbo diesel, so there’s no trouble leaving it in that mode.
In Chill we had a theoretical range over approximately 400km on a full charge, which is short of the official claim of 542km, but still better than any other electric car on the market today. Tesla includes a wall charger in the price of the car and there’s both its supercharger and destination charging network available in large parts of the country, especially the east coast.
The destination chargers (typically the same wall charger that comes with the car) are slower than superchargers and are set up at hotels and tourist attractions to allow owners to recharge their car while entertaining themselves.
During our time in the Model X we drove from Sydney to Katoomba, at the far end of the Blue Mountains, and was able to use a publically accessible destination charger to top up our battery to get it home with plenty of better life (more than 70 per cent) left.
Aside from its Ludicrous acceleration the Model X feels more conventional to drive, albeit with some minor differences to a petrol-powered SUV.
The most obvious difference is the regenerative braking, which means you can largely drive it only using the accelerator pedal, as lifting off creates significant deceleration. Like any EV this does require you to adjust the way you drive but it soon becomes second-nature.
As for the rest of the driving experience it’s what you expect from such a big SUV. The steering has various modes but they only adjust the weighting and each lacks feeling and feedback.
There is a huge over the shoulder blind spot created by the sloping roofline too, and the back windscreen is already small in the rear view mirror before you add passengers to the mix so it demands extra attention to ensure things are safe behind you.
The ride could be better too, despite the air suspension, it simply struggles to control such a heavy vehicle on such low profile tyres (our test car was rolling on 22-inch alloys). So it gets busy over patchy roads but jars on sharp-edged bumps.
Then there’s the Autopilot system which has been a source for controversy recently with several well publicised accidents. However, Tesla is open in acknowledging this is a beta system and the driver is fully aware of it before they can switch it on. So anyone thinking they can sit back and relax when the system is engaged is mistaken.
In reality it’s a similar system to what is already offered in the likes of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5-Series, active cruise control with lane keeping assistance. It works reasonably well when the conditions and lane markings allow it, but it can switch itself off at any time so the driver has to remain fully engaged.
Now the hype has died down, what is the Model X left with? It’s undoubtedly a fantastic car in so many ways - its performance, the range and the clever technology. However, the steep price and the build quality make it a hard car to recommend.
The biggest challenge Tesla and the Model X face is the impending arrival of the likes of the Jaguar I-Pace, Audi e-tron and Mercedes-Benz EQ C. All three are already attracting plenty of hype of their own.
We help you find the best purchase deal available for Tesla Model X.
$285k for a giant battery pack on wheels. Yikes.