Freemont, California – Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) launched on Monday its highly-expected SUV Model X at the company’s headquarters in Freemont, California.
The price of the regular version is going to be in the range of the $80,000, according to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors. Signature and Founder editions of Model X start at $132,000 and $142,000 each, but the are already sold out.
Tesla delivered the first half-dozen Model X vehicles to customers that made a previous $5,000 reservation.
“Mr. Musk said he expects the Model X to get about half its sales from North America and the remainder from the rest of the world and for the SUV to sell in about the same number as the Model S,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
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According to ExtremeTech, the Falcon Wing doors were one of the high points of the launched vehicle. These doors open upward, representing an advantage when it comes to parking, and they also have sensors that help users clear obstacles, according to BBC News. Nevertheless, Tesla Motors had to acknowledge that this feature caused multiple delays during the manufacturing process.
The company “got a little carried away,” designing the Model X, Mr. Musk said on Tuesday, and might have made some changes if it had known about the difficulty of manufacturing some of the car’s features, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Other technical specs were unveiled on the launch. The Model X SUV will provide three rows of seats that will actually be usable, as its well known that the third row of SUVs is not very comfortable. The electric battery is similar to the one on Model S, 90-kWh covering a range of 250 miles. All Tesla motors are all-wheel drive with front and rear 259 hp electric motors, or a 503 hp rear motor.
It also comes with an 17-inch LCD display, maps and navigation, front or rear trunks, battery warranty and a “panoramic windshield that is the largest ever installed in a production vehicle and sweeps back far enough to reduce blind-spot problems,” Tesla Motors stated. When it comes to safety, Model X comes with a system for collision warning, according to Extreme Tech.
Source: The Wall Street Journal