Tesla's Model X: Finally, an electric car we all want

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk demonstrates the Model X's falcon-wing doors.

/ Wayne Cunningham/CNET

(CNET  - Commentary) - Tesla Motors is helping destroy the notion that electric vehicles are green cars with unfortunate compromises.

Pictures: Tesla Model X

The company last night

Tesla Model X: Electric, all-wheel drive, and crazy folding doors

, a sleek-looking cross between a minivan and SUV with clever "falcon wing" doors and a new electric all-wheel drive system. People can start placing reservations tomorrow for the Model X, which is expected to be available late next year with prices in the $55,000 to $75,000 range before tax incentives and rebates.

Beyond making an attractive crossover, Tesla has shown how electric vehicles open up new design possibilities. The Model X isn't just an electric version of competing SUVs, it's a luxury vehicle that has useful features its internal combustion or hybrid cousins couldn't have.

The key to Tesla's cool design is the powertrain, built around a flat battery pack that extends from the front to rear wheels under the car. This provides a low center of gravity for good handling, but also allows for substantially more interior space than a vehicle with a transmission running under it.

In demonstrations with journalists this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stood up inside the car to show the ample available space, a feature that makes loading or entering and exiting easier. The Model X has three rows of seats and is able to hold seven adults and their luggage, something other SUVs makers could not claim.

The electric powertrain is also behind another key feature of the Model X--its optional all-wheel drive system, built around one motor for the front wheels and another for the back.

The precision and instant power the motors provide, which can be adjusted thousands of times a second by the car's computer, will make it a very functional all-wheel drive vehicle capable of driving anywhere, according to Tesla.

The falcon wing doors, meanwhile, don't benefit from the Model X being electric, but they help make Tesla's cars distinctive and appeal to the luxury clientele.

Execution
The electric powertrain under the Model S and now the Model X are a platform on which Tesla intends to build other variants. During the unveiling of the Model X last night in Los Angeles, Musk reiterated his desire to make a "mass market" electric vehicle with a lower price point, too.

Tesla's electric power train brings its multiple advantages--great acceleration, good handling, and lots of internal space.

/ Tesla Motors

Of course, having a disruptive technology and an attractive product isn't enough. Tesla, whose stock price has been volatile since going public, also has to execute its business plan with few mistakes.

Competitor Fisker Automotive has been beset with numerous delays in bringing out its Fisker Karma extended-range luxury electric car. The company earlier this week said will have to lay off workers and renegotiate its Department of Energy loan because it has apparently not met milestones specified in the contract.

As Tesla is phasing out sales of the Roadster, the company's

Tesla's next act: Cheaper electric cars...and a profit?

The electric-car maker will phase out sales of the sporty Roadster and bet the company on the Model S luxury sedan, a difficult transition that pivots on execution and the buzz around electric vehicles.

. The Model S is still expected to come out later this year with higher volume shipments next year.

No one can say with certainty how many consumers are willing to buy a cool-looking EV sedan or crossover. But you can't fault Tesla for not embracing disruptive technology or thinking big.

15 Photos

Tesla Model X

[rolyb]

The car price is too high. They should lowered the price 3 times low to enable the public to afford it.

[robdedo]

I remember studying a bit about China under chairman Mao. He wanted China to be a major steel producer, before President Nixon opened relations. He mandated that everybody should build a home smelter and produce steel. People melted their pots and utensils to create useless slag that was tallied up as steel production.
...
Here we have an article about a useless piece of slag, that represents a waste of public (and private) resources, reminiscent of those days in Maoist China.

[cbs4111]

Oh come on! Very few people want to pay $55,000 to $75,000 for a vehicle just because it runs on coal. Coal is the most polluting source of energy on the planet.

[skyeblu87]

But that's the beauty of electric vehicles cbs4111 - it doesn't have to be coal power. It could be nuclear power, or you can have your own power generation through solar panels or a wind turbine directly to your car charger... gasoline is gasoline, and there are no choices in that.

[Yes_ABWH_Fan]

Still an SUV, still inefficient - just burns more coal per mile than gas. I wonder how well it will perform for 200 miles in a freezing-rain/blizzard, and still keep the passengers and windows warm?? No articles about e-vehicles EVER comment about that scenario. So are these fair-weather vehicles only? If so, why are they getting built? The money dumped into this tech should instead be diverted into scaling up carbon-neutral, sulfur-free solar Oil-from-Algae, which will maintain our existing fuel system sans pollution, and get rid of drilling & refining oil. The tech is already proven in the lab.

[facelessdrone2005]

"The Model X has three rows of seats and is able to hold seven adults and their luggage, something other SUVs makers could not claim." Yeah right, none of the other auto makers could have thought of a three-row SUV, other than Ford, Chevy, Buick, Cadillac, Dodge, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mercedes, Acura, BMW, and all the rest of the world's automakers. This author must not know much about SUVs.

[TitaniumFirefly]

"Tesla's Model X: Finally, an electric car we all want"

My only problem with this is the title. There are a lot of ingenious and hard working people who have slaved millions of man-hours creating the electric car as we know it and simply because it looks like an SUV/crossover NOW it's desirable. What about the Model S on which it's based? Or did you forget that one, CBS? I find this title offensive to everyone who worked on a "car" before. If it was a car, it's not viable but now that it's a larger CUV, "Oh well! That's different! Everyone will want THAT!" Very ignorant title. Obviously no one wants a Prius...

[daffy64]

Good Lord, I hope nobody buys these. I'm Canadian and we're your largest supplier of oil.

[micmac666]

Not to worry. Plenty of fossil fuels will be needed to build, power, and lubricate vehicles for a long time to come. Thanks for the great bacon, too.