Best For Blue Sky Thinking
Tesla Model X
Idon’t know what the guys and girls at Tesla were smoking when they came up with the Model X, but it had to be pretty potent, as nothing about this car makes any sense. Come on... a massive two-tonne, sevenseat family van that can outrun some supercars? Powered by batteries? That drives itself?! Imagine a young designer suggesting that to the board at a company like Mercedes. He’d be fred on the spot.
Look at it. It’s the size of a shed, yet the P100D model will polish of 0–60mph in 2.9 seconds. And it’ll complete this ludicrous sprint without so much as chirping a tyre. It mercilessly rams torque at all four wheels, riding a surge so vicious that few cars outside of the most exotic of exotica can keep up.
The speed isn’t bonkers in itself, of course, fast cars are 10 a penny. What’s bonkers is the fact that the Model X delivers this speed while your wife, four children, some luggage and a dog are onboard.
Other party tricks? Well, it also drives itself, sort of. While other manufacturers are dipping their toes into the water with lane-keep assist, or “umming and ahhing” about “legislation this”, and “insurance liability that”, Tesla’s said “sod it all” and built a car that will whisk you hands-free up the M1. This is a car people can actually buy. Today. And it’s doing this in the year 2016, not 2042.
They could have stopped there, to be frank, but they didn’t. They’ve given the Model X the tools to fetch itself from parking spaces. The falcon-wing doors open up like the Karate Kid preparing to unleash a crane kick, and the driver door opens itself as you approach, closing itself once you’ve sat down. Why? Absolutely no idea. Our best guess is that they chufng well could, so they chufng well did.
Then there’s the cabin technology. You can imagine rival car designers pondering how big an infotainment screen they should ft to their next facelifted estate. Six inches? Nine-point-three maybe? Meanwhile, over at Tesla they’re busy wiring in a 17-incher. Vertically. Utter madness.
Yeah, the Model X makes no sense. It shouldn’t exist. Someone should have shot this idea down long before it reached the production line. And yet it’s here, throwing caution to the wind, not giving a damn about established norms. There really is nothing else like it.