Tesla Model X SUV | Hacker News Reader

Tesla Model X SUV

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I hate SUVs.

The disadvantages of a sedan in conjunction with the disadvantages of an off-road.

SUVs in Spain are used by mothers when they go to school to pick up their kids. Useless vehicles.

i.e. BMW X5 vs Lada Niva:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q8jt-Y75Kc

The model X is more appropriately called a cross-over, and those are very useful cars. They're much smaller and easier to park in the city than a mini-van, but have more room than a sedan. The higher seating position is also great for visibility and shleping stuff in and out of the car without bending down.

I'm curious. Do you have kids? A few years ago I might have said the same thing as you, but with a car seat and pee-diapers in the back seat,[1] I'm really feeling the need for more room than I have in my 3-series.

[1] That in addition to being stuck in suburban Philadelphia hell.

>SUVs in Spain are used by mothers when they go to school to pick up their kids.

You're already lucky. My experience is that many SUV owner just use them to go alone to work in city's center.

I'm not against SUVs (or big cars, in general), they're just overkill for many people that still buy them for the "cool" factor.

> I'm not against SUVs (or big cars, in general), they're just overkill for many people that still buy them for the "cool" factor.

That's exactly my point.

You can add to my point that in Spain also, it has to be diesel (even if you are going to do only around 1000 miles a year).

The government created the SUV market by enforcing dangerous CAFE standards on regular autos. (SUVs were considered trucks and exempt). CAFE kills many people every year because it has reduced car weight in the name of fuel economy. Since you can't buy a safe big sedan for your family, you buy an SUV instead.

I believe that (enforcing fuel efficiency equals more deaths) to be a myth. There's little correlation between fuel efficiency and safety.

SUVs ARE safer in front crashes.. but they're otherwise no safer than a car of equal price, which are usually way more fuel efficient (US cars in general are not fuel efficient at all).

It is also true that the least safe cars are all small cars, but that's more correlated with price than with size - an Audi A4 is considered a midsize car by US standards, yet it's one of the safest cars around.

Sources:

http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4204.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_sport_utility_vehi...

www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/05/suvs-are-safer-than-cars-in-front-crashes-but-there-is-more-to-the-story/index.htm

Also, I work for an insurance company and hear lots of myths.

Source?

Thought there was something new being announced for Model X. Looks like its the same old model x web page. Am I missing anything?

I thought it was that they are now taking reservations, but it seems they have been doing that for a while now (over 6,000 reservations have already been made).

Probably someone thought the Model X was neat so they posted it, then HN folks who hold TSLA shares voted it up because it's in their best interests to do so.

Maybe I'm crazy but that looks like a sedan to me.

If you look at the side profile of the Tesla from the rear you'll see some Mercedes R class in there. Not the most flattering comparison but it was supposed to be Mercedes' version of a cool minivan with SUV characteristics. Tesla's own marketing copy even mentions minivans.

I'm guessing they branded this as a "SUV" to appeal to the market (SUV=cool Minivan=Not) more than as an accurate description of it's capabilities.

What is new about this?

The post date. Someone got nervous from not seeing a Model X front-page post in a month so they took it upon themselves to remind us it exists.

You're welcome.

I was wondering the same. Nothing as far as I can tell.

Speculation on pricing: "Most deliveries are expected in 2015, and the base price is expected to range from $70,000 to $90,000" [1]

[1] http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24297493/classic-sili...

Why is this on the front page again? There is nothing new.

Still no price. Let's see if they can get the 60kWH front drive around $40k.

I believe their sub 50K "every-man" car is the next one after this SUV. Success might bring the price down, but they need the money from this to finance a more mass-market version.

As much as I’d love if they got it down that far, is the vehicle significantly cheaper for them to manufacture such that they could sell it at that price (vs the $70k+ for the Model S)?

“… and priced comparable to a similarly equipped Model S.” Looks like they don't have an explicit price, but the price point in general is there.

Doesn't seem likely: "Deliveries will begin in 2014 and priced comparable to a similarly equipped Model S"

Cameras instead of mirrors? Is that a first for a (relatively) normal car?

Also, it looks like "falcon wings" are going to eat garage door manual releases.

Not sure what niche the all wheel drive fills. Most people I know with that kind of vehicle justify it as something they take up to the mountains every winter. While I'm sure it would handle great on icy roads, I could see the range being a problem, especially as this probably is less energy efficient with the higher profile. The other thing vans and the like are good for is packing heavy on road trips; same problem.

I'm just surprised that the options are RWD and AWD... in the North American market, RWD is the province of sports cars and Euro imports. I'd expect to see front drive on a family car like this.

Most of the country gets snow in the winter without going into the mountains. I fish-tailed my RWD car into a bridge railing last winter just tooling around suburban New York in light snow...

I thought the doors might swing wayyy out, but they don't. Hell, the wing doors probably require less clearance to getting out of the vehicle than traditional doors.

A bit weird how much of the feature brief they dedicate to the doors, though.

It's a very odd decision, though. There's a variety of good reasons why minivans use those elaborate sliding-doors, and going with wing-doors instead is very surprising. The question is not "wing vs traditional" but, for a 3-row family vehicle, "wing vs sliding".

Sliding doors are heavy and expensive and complicated devices, but they can be reached by short children and have near-zero clearance requirements.

I wonder if they went with the wing-doors purely to avoid the "minivan" connotations of sliding ones?

Does anyone else think "Falcon Wings" sounds uncharacteristically silly and gimmicky?

They're traditionally called "gull-wing doors" [1], but I guess falcons are sleeker than gulls.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gull-wing_door

What's "uncharacteristic" about the name? It's the actual doors that are silly and gimmicky, so the naming is apt.

Any idea on price? You can put down a 5k fully refundable deposit.

Not a Tesla-specific dig, just a general car-naming whinge here. What % of cars with 'sports' in their title actually get used for sports?

Sports doesn't mean literally sport (as in an organized competition), it means that the car is built with a sporty character.

I think you might be surprised at the number of people who take their sporty every day driver to a track though. Still, I'd be surprised if it passed 1%.

There are many levels of automotive sport, and at the bottom tier, you have fairly common activities like autocross and HPDE (high performance driving event). Both are low cost, low barrier of entry activities that are a lot of fun.

I don't think it's an SUV. It reminds me of BMW X6, which is as much an SUV as it is a sports car.

Looks like something the wife would want.

This is aimed squarely at women.

How so? Looks to me that it's aimed at people who have to drive kids around, what with the "easy access to a 3rd row of seats" feature.

They've gone to substantial lengths to avoid having it bear traditional minivan styling - it looks like a sedan and is branded as an SUV - so it avoids the worst of the "mom-car" features. Other than the female silhouette in the door image, I fail to see how this is "feminine".

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