BATMAN-COOL TESLA MODEL X A SPORTY SMARTPHONE ON WHEELS
Sleek, with head-turning falcon-wing doors, roomy SUV has 400-km range
California’s stunning northern coastline is the perfect place to unplug for a few days — unless you’re driving this otherworldly SUV.
Even then, with a full-charge range of just over 400 kilometres, you won’t need to plug in the Tesla Model X very often visiting such county landmarks as the Point Arenas lighthouse, the rolling wine-trail through Anderson Valley and the big redwoods of Jackson State Forest.
When you do need to juice up, in addition to a number of public charging stations scat- tered throughout the area, quite a few of the county’s inns, resorts and B&Bs offer Tesla charging stations for guests. There were no less than six within a few miles of Mendocino City (pop. 894).
We did just that at Dennen’s Victorian Farmhouse, a very chic and historic establishment on the coastline just south of seaside city. Proprietor Jo Bradley has had a few Model Ss stay at her historic B&B and use the Tesla charger she had installed last year, but this was the first Model X to use the 40-amp charger.
As with most who see one for the first time, she had many questions and approving head nods.
Our overnight stay in the onebedroom cottage at the back of the tranquil two-acre property truly encapsulated the ‘unplug and plug-in’ theme of this trip.
The adventure began earlier that day at the bustling San Francisco intersection of Geary and Mason in Union Square, loading up luggage into the Model X’s cavernous cargo holds — fore and aft — outside Hotel G.
The morning tourist rush swept by, with only a few knowing glances at the, it can be said, somewhat nondescript SUV. That is, until the passenger side falcon-wing door swept open.
Instant gridlock. Smartphones clutched in their hands, the tourist horde jostled for selfies and family portraits in front of the yawning second-row door. Exclamations in a United Nations’ worth of languages. Requests to open and close it as smartphone videos were shot.
Realizing we could be there all day, we hopped in, pressed the ‘Close All’ button on the centre console touchscreen, and silently pulled away from the curb as the audible route guidance system put us on course for our first designated stop — the Tesla Supercharging station in the parking lot of the East Washington Place Shopping Center in Petaluma, just 39.2 miles (or 63.9 km) up Highway 101 from Hotel G.
Why, you ask, with our battery range reading 230 miles, would we stop just 40 miles into our trip.
Well, when you’re on a road trip in a Tesla you don’t pass up an opportunity to charge up for free, particularly at a Supercharger. Sort of like with your smartphone.
Once there, we plugged in and were back to full range in less than 15 minutes.
Another lesson learned from past road trips in a Tesla is these charging stops are the occasions you grab a meal. We did just that, at an In-N-Out joint.
Unplugged from the supercharger station, where a handful of other Teslas were charging up, we punched in our next destination — Dennen’s Victorian Farmhouse in Little River.
Seconds later three possible routes appeared on the 17-inch centre-mounted touchscreen.
With only nine miles of distance difference between them, we selected the scenic Highway 1 route west out of Petaluma to Bodega Bay and the Pacific Ocean, then snaking north up the coast through towns evoking the romance of the state’s northern coast: Timber Cove, Sea Ranch, Fish Rock and Elk.
Distance: 116 miles. Time to destination: Two hours, 46 minutes.
That didn’t seem quite right, but after driving the coastal part of the route, we figured out why. Despite a posted speed limit of 55 m.p.h., the fastest we got the Model X up to on this stretch was 32 mph. And no, not because of traffic — because of the undulating roadway.
We arrived at the farmhouse within a minute of the predetermined time.
We spent the next three days exploring laid-back Mendocino County, followed by a drive back down 101 to return the Model X to Tesla HQ in Palo Alto.
After the supercharge at Petaluma on that first day, the only time we charged up was that first night stay at Dennen’s Farmhouse. With 250 miles on the batteries, we had more than enough to drive around the county before arriving back at the Petaluma charger with 30 miles left to spare. Just 30 minutes later we were back to a near-full charge and headed south to Palo Alto.
So, what did we learn about the Model X during this trip into the fabled Lost Coast of California?
Well, first and foremost — and despite undeniable claims that the Tesla battery pack is the best in the business and the very real truth that the falcon-wing doors are Batman-cool — the real heart of this SUV is that touchscreen, a true smartphone on steroids.
From calculating routes to determining charge requirements and locations; from finding off-the-beaten path restaurants to surfing the web for reviews (our test model was equipped with 4G Wi-Fi); and from quickly and intuitively using climate, car system and audio controls, the touchscreen takes all the guesswork out of a road trip. Particularly when exploring uncharted territory.
And before you say the ‘unknown’ is what makes a road trip memorable, consider what finding yourself in the middle of nowhere with an outdated print map and a battery life of five miles would feel like.
It’s been said, snidely, that Tesla vehicles are just smartphones on wheels. Well, yeah, and that’s what makes them so remarkable.
Decry our joined-at-the-hip tethering to our phones all you like, there’s no denying the inherent value of real-time navigation and information — right at our fingertips.
All Tesla has done — and, it must be said, brilliantly in form and execution — is integrate the strength and scope of drivingrelated apps into the very DNA of their vehicles, fulfilling the intriguing promise of a Silicon Valley mindset in the production on an automobile.
And a hat tip must be paid to Google, whose map system is at the very heart of the Tesla brain. Just as Uber couldn’t have happened without Apple, Tesla’s operating system could not be possible without Google. There’s even a Google trademark logo at the bottom right corner of the Tesla map screen for proof. Then there’s the vehicle itself. The interior space of the Model X is as airy and stylish as the Model S sedan, made even more so thanks to the wildly sweptback and panoramic windshield, the largest in production. It ends behind and above the front occupants’ heads, providing amazing views, akin to those from one of those bubble-glass helicopters.
Our tester was outfitted with two second-row seats — a threerow layout is also available — and like the front seats they are sculpted and shaped to recall the most stylish Swedish furniture.
Unfortunately, like furniture that looks great in magazines but leaves a little to be desired when sitting on it, the second row seats elicited some complaints. First, the front-seat headrest intruded upon the sightlines looking forward; and second, after a couple of hours of seat time, the bolstering wasn’t doing its job of providing good support. “Hard to find a comfortable position,” was one comment.
The third-row seats were easily accessible, either through the middle of the two second-row seats or by moving the secondrow seats up and accessing through the massive space provided by the falcon-wing door opening.
In terms of interior storage, the Model X is the SUV leader, with 2,180 litres worth.
And with no motor under the trunk, there’s more space for cargo, providing unsurpassed capacity.
Having spent a good many kilometres behind the wheel of the Model S, I found the performance and handling characteristics of this Model X — our tester was the top-of-the-line, all-wheel drive P90D model — very similar.
Amazing acceleration, regenerative braking that acts like downshifting that once mastered makes twisty highways a blast to drive, and an extremely surefooted nature.
What makes this remarkable, of course, is that were talking about an all-wheel drive SUV having the same driving characteristics as a sports sedan. Amazing.
One place the sedan outshines the SUV, however, is in cabin noise. The Model S, even at hard highway acceleration, is whisper quiet, almost eerily so.
The Model X has more cabin noise, partly from its higher and larger front end cutting through the air, and partly from the frontwheel mounted electric engines.
That said, it’s still much quieter than its gasoline-fuelled competitors.
Actually, it’s odd to write that word when writing about the Tesla Model X. Competitors. As far as I can tell, there is nothing on the road like the Model X.
It truly resides in a category all its own.