Tesla Model X: Ignition
TESLA MODEL X
IGNITION
Words: Alessandro Marrone
Photography: Giorgia Rossi
Today I feel like a rookie – that’s the feeling I get as I climb at the wheel of my first Tesla, in this case the Model X. For a car enthusiast and a driving fanatic like me, having to deal with something as innovative as this means starting from scratch, listening every single indication from the prepared guys at Tesla and to project myself in a different dimension from the one where I live usually, the one built around the roar of an engine, the violent force of one or two turbos and braking close to a corner that would soon test the chassis, handling and my courage. With Tesla I find a high performance car, but its main ingredient here is technology – a seemingly endless load of bells and whistles that make it the alternative car par excellence. Spending the next few hours, however, to describe point by point every single gadget that makes it a real time machine would be like forcing you to read another article like a thousands of others already seen and read and so I decided to approach my test in a completely different way from how it would have been more logical, with an eye firmly fixed on the electrical argumentation. I rather wanted to act like I usually do when I’m dealing with a sports car, an SUV in this case, but with the performance of a thoroughbred sports car, going to find out in what way the inputs of these two electric motors are assimilated and what kind of driving experience the ultimate Tesla can give to you.
The Model X maintains the sober yet elegant design introduced by the Model S sedan, but is distinguished by its larger dimension – first of all its ground clearance, which gives access in the SUV segment (and/or Crossover), also thanks to a four-wheel drive chassis, but the slender shape and the low tail make it thin and with a very low drag coefficient. Needless to say, what catches the attention is then the opening of the rear doors called falcon wings and able to regulate their movement during the opening and closing depending on the obstacles detected by the sensors that communicate in zero time the situation to the two motors that regulate the mechanism. At that point, being able to slide forward (electrically) the two rear seats, you can also have access to the third row of seats, which can still leave a flat loading space in the trunk. I approach the driver’s seat and hit the big button that automatically opens the door, sit down and press the brake pedal allowing the door to close – I did not feel so pampered from the time I was starting my days watching cartoons on tv. At that point, the Model X is already on and just move the lever of the transmission in D to be able to move away from Monaco and today’s traffic. Everything is carefully silent and the world outside never seemed so far away, not because of the driving position which is still very low (at least as chosen by me), but because it seems to be sit in something that comes from the future. In total silence we enter through the narrow streets that make us get out of the Prince’s Palace and we pay attention to pedestrians who can’t hear us coming. The Model X offers a panoramic glass roof which happens to be the largest in the world and the magnetic sun visors do not embarrass and especially do not waste the overall design that put you further in the center of the Tesla world. The visibility is total, front pillars are never a problem and looking at the back it has a maneuvering camera also available while driving in D. The gearbox is automatic but has a single ratio and this 75D is the model with a 75-kWh battery, two electric motors (one at front and one at the rear) and of course the all-wheel drive. The floor is flat, any kind of clutter from the underbody between the two rear seats (in the 6 seats configuration) which are slightly decentralized for offering maximum space and without sacrificing the comfort of the occupants. Time to play with the huge 17-inch touch display from which you can control the whole Tesla world, including the air conditioner, a navigation system (which also indicates the charging points and involves them according to your selected route), internet (with an included contract at the time of purchasing the car), the radio immediately connected to Spotify and a lot more. The steering wheel is just the right size and has only a handful of buttons, which allow you to manage the driver’s display: I choose to keep an eye on the map, the speedometer and the battery charge status, meanwhile I head towards the Route de la Turbie, where having left behind the urban center, I’ll taste the electric power of this mastodon just landed from the future.
I put down the accelerator (do not call it gas) and I am pushed down to the seat like taking off on a plane. The push is not progressive – it’s instantaneous, total and above all it keeps going. I am already at the first hairpin and I’m too fast so I have to go hard on the brake, entering the curve without any sort of body roll. Heavy on the throttle again and the only noise that accompanies this rapid succession of corners is a kind of hissing, the wind noise and the laughter of satisfaction that we make on board. Then I put the steering in SPORT mode and the feedback gets tougher, the suspensions are put to the lower ride height possible and now seems to drive a sports car in the classical term. There is no waste of time, no delay of delivery – all happens in less than the blink of an eye, and for once I do not feel the lack of an appropriate soundtrack. It’s almost a game and seems to be addictive, also I’m not even wasting petrol (ah, we’re not even polluting the planet!). We stop for some photos and we admire the opening mechanism of the rear doors, I observe it from different angles and I begin to evaluate with more knowledge of the facts its main aspects, what it means and what it wants to represent on the market today. I love that front so apparently simple but clean, without the need for a grille that would flow air to an engine that today is not there. Tesla does not want to create the best car of a particular segment, they want to create the best car overall. These are words that make me reflect on the fact that the Model X is worth every penny of its price (starting at about € 105 000) – it’s up to you if taking it into account instead of a classic petrol, diesel or even hybrid. In this case, performance is its strong point especially for the speed of delivery, the ease with which you could make any overtaking, always with an eye to the autonomy left. Knowing that you can also recharge it from your house’s socket and that, even around the old continent, we are welcoming more and more Tesla charging stations.
The technological aspect of the Model X is huge and could go on for hours, but I preferred to concentrate on the driving sides, since our readers have fine tastes and I think that they prefer to know they can attack a curvy road with the Model X (or Model S) without regrets for having left home their standard sports car – probably the fact to manage the doors, all the seats and the excellent audio system will be a luxury retail, good to know, but still less significant in terms of driving experience. Yes, because in the end our emotions are measured in a very simple way, that is never conditioned by fuel consumption or tech gizmos – these emotions are measured in smiles per kilometer and the Model X is able to complete a great job. It does so in a different way, probably more complicated to understand and, for some to accept, but it does that in the way we would prefer if we were supposed to look to a future without combustion engine cars. Screw those little electric city cars only designed for those monsters who hate real cars, Tesla stands at the electric world as the P1, LaFerrari and 918 are for hybrids: an alternative that does not imply the refuse for fun and desire for speed.