CALIFORNIA – Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) officially announced that they are ready to launch their Model X Crossover car on September 29 at their facilities at Freemont, California. It is the third car developed by the company, and comes after Model S, the world’s first premium electric sedan in 2012.
The company, named after Nikola Tesla, is expected to reveal the technical specs, prices and different options for ownership. Tesla is accepting reservations of the vehicle on their website, and the deliveries are set to start in 2016.
“Model X combines the space and functionality of a seven seat sport utility vehicle with the uncompromised performance of a Tesla. Every Model X comes with all-wheel drive standard, powered by two independent, digitally controlled electric motors”, reads on their website. With a single battery charge, the Model X is supposed to go 250 miles.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, said to The Verge that ” is really a great car. I mean, because it has such a low center of mass, it handles like a sports car even though it’s an SUV. The performance is just surreal. Nothing else is comparable.”
Tesla already has over 50,000 vehicles on the streets around the world, but that doesn’t prevent them from suffering losses. According to The New York Times, the company “painted a better-than-expected financial picture” and “the production of Model X could hurt production of the current Model S sedan, because the two vehicles will be manufactured on the same assembly line at Tesla’s factory”.
Their objective is to bring the production up to 50,000 of both Model S and Model X on 2015, although they have acknowledge that expectations might be a little high. Tesla have been enjoying the privilege of the lack of competition, but it is well known that other companies, like Porsche, Mercedes Benz, and even Apple, are working on electric cars so there is going to be competition for Tesla Motors in the market sooner than expected. Tesla knows that being the first doesn’t guarantee you to be the best.
In order to recover from the losses and take advantage, the company lies down in the variety of benefits that electric cars offer, such as charging the battery at home and not spending money on gasoline. “For long distance journeys, Tesla’s Supercharger network provides convenient and free access to high speed charging, replenishing half a charge in as little as 20 minutes” says on their website.
Source: Tesla Motors website