Watch Motor Trend's Jason Cammisa get a first look and short drive with the Tesla Model X!
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00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 So we're here to drive the new Tesla Model X P90D.
00:07 And this is of course the crossover that's based
00:09 on the very successful Model S sedan.
00:12 So a lot of the things underneath we're familiar with.
00:14 We know basically what the motors are gonna be like.
00:17 We know what the steering's gonna be like
00:18 and the architecture of the car is very similar.
00:21 But what we don't know, and here's one coming right now,
00:23 is what it's gonna be like being in a much taller Model S
00:26 and also one with these crazy doors.
00:28 Of course this car's party trick is the Falcon doors.
00:31 They open up and out.
00:33 And that allows much easier ingress into the third row
00:36 and also the second row.
00:37 We're testing two different cars here.
00:40 We have just a couple minutes behind the wheel.
00:42 The first is this development car,
00:44 which is riding on these massive
00:46 Michelin Pilot Super Sports.
00:47 These are not yet going to be available to customers,
00:49 but they're letting us take it out.
00:51 And it promises to be a pretty crazy ride.
00:55 (upbeat music)
00:58 - Auto crossing, I don't even know what this,
01:05 do we know what it weighs, are you gonna tell us?
01:07 - It's quite cheap.
01:08 - You got bolted?
01:09 - It's bolted, yeah.
01:10 - Nope.
01:10 - Oh, okay, well then.
01:11 - Sorry.
01:12 - I'll try to make the transitions nice and smooth.
01:14 Okay, it's really flat.
01:16 - There's some sort of nasty gear suspension.
01:21 See the lesson here is that it may weigh 5,400 pounds,
01:24 but this thing handles really well,
01:26 so you might want to put some belts on the back.
01:29 - Also ludicrous.
01:30 (laughing)
01:30 - Sorry.
01:31 - So this is a fairly tight space.
01:35 - This is a really tight space.
01:36 (beeping)
01:39 - Put it in park.
01:39 - All right, you guys gotta get out
01:42 and don't ding the doors.
01:43 - So, these doors will read the environment around them.
01:49 - Oh, wow.
01:49 - They're gonna open on an early.
01:51 - And then, before you pop the car.
01:54 (mumbling)
01:56 - And we're a little closer on this side,
01:59 so it might as well be on this side.
02:02 - Of course, like the Model S,
02:03 this thing's party trick is the acceleration.
02:06 I mean, it does zero to 60 in 3.2 seconds,
02:08 according to Tesla, and they call it ludicrous mode.
02:11 I call it Tourette's mode,
02:12 because anyone in the car will burst into
02:15 terrible, terrible things.
02:17 It also has the Falcon doors,
02:19 which rise up instead of opening out.
02:21 And of course, the first time everyone sees this car
02:24 do that trick in public, it's gonna stop traffic.
02:27 And I'm 5'11", so unlike the old Mercedes gullwing,
02:29 where you could smack your head in the door at all times,
02:31 six footers can clear underneath here.
02:33 So the doors do something really cool.
02:34 When you press to open, it sort of opens at you,
02:36 and that's because it can close the door, too.
02:39 So when I get in,
02:40 don't have to touch anything.
02:44 This crossover, of course, has four-wheel drive,
02:46 and it weighs 5,441 pounds, according to Tesla.
02:50 But just like the Model S,
02:51 a lot of that weight is located in the floor.
02:54 That's where the battery,
02:55 the heaviest part of the vehicle, is.
02:57 So handling, as a result, is surprisingly flat.
03:01 Of course, I mean, you can't control yourself.
03:03 Tesla set up a course with a bunch of cones
03:06 and told me to go around it,
03:07 so the first thing I did was
03:08 slide around a couple corners.
03:09 Actually, the biggest surprise about the Model X
03:11 is that I fit in the third row,
03:13 which means you can fit seven of me in that car,
03:15 making it an actual seven-seater.
03:17 Go figure.
03:18 (rock music)