1st In-Action Video Of Tesla Model X Falcon-Wing Door
Originally published on EV Obsession.
Some spy shooters recently landed a gold mine while at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California — they caught the Tesla Model X on camera with one of its falcon-wing doors opening and closing!! Sort of surprising that no one caught one before now, but just a few days before the official unveiling, it’s the perfect way to cap several months of fun spy shots and videos.
Here’s the video (published yesterday), which was shared on the Tesla Motors Club forum by the brother of the driver (and brother-in-law of the “videographer”):
The commentary is pretty funny. And regarding the “ghetto” extra push needed to shut the falcon-wing door, I think it’s safe to say that’s an idiosyncrasy of the mule and won’t be how things roll in the production vehicles.
I will give my own 2¢ on what we just saw, though: the opening and closing of the doors is subtler than I expected. I think that’s a big win and will make the car seem super slick to many on-lookers. That is going to be a demand pull — people will want that super cool feature.
There’s plenty of debate about whether the extra effort and delays to get the falcon-wing doors right were worth it. I think you’ve got to be crazy or smoking crack to think they weren’t. These doors will catch so many eyes. Once you’ve got people’s attention, “Yeah, it is quicker than almost every car ever mass produced but seats 7… comfortably. Wanna drive it for a minute?” Cha-ching!
This is a beautiful car and the falcon-wing-doors are the halo feature. And best of all for many buyers: they will make ingress/egress much easier, and make loading mini humans and cargo into the back seats much easier. Brilliant.
Sir Elon Musk gets a lot of praise for plenty of brilliant ideas and wise moves on the chess board of the auto industry, but I think this is one that stands out. Ironic that so many people criticize him for it. I can’t really put myself in that thought process well enough to “get it,” I guess.
3 days till the official unveiling and initial deliveries. Who’s getting excited?!
Related:
Model X P90D Range Now Up To 250 Miles
Model X Times 4 — Looking Hot (3 Pics, 1 Video)
How The Model X 2nd-Row Seats Work (Images)
Could The Tesla Model X Get A $25,000 Tax Deduction?
Windshield Of Tesla Model X To Be One Of Its Best Features
Tesla Model X 0-60 Time Beats Every SUV In History
Tesla Model X Design Studio Images & Specs Leaked
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
CleanTechnica Holiday Wish Book
Our Latest EVObsession Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
The doors look badass but they will inevitably have more problems than conventional doors powered by the human hand. You are right, in terms of marketing they have a gee wiz factor that may sell more vehicles.
Allow me to )show you a genuine way to earn a lot of extra money by finishing basic tasks from your house for few short hours a day — See more info by visiting >MY*&___(DISQUS)*%___ID)
Good thing it’s not on the front door or I wouldn’t be able to get in/ out of the car in my garage.
What happened to the second hinge? There was supposed to be a second hinge at the edges of the roof line to allow the door to swing up in a narrower profile.
It looks like you need around 2.5 feet of clearance to the side when the door is fully open. There is a second hinge at the part that when closed is at the edge of the roofline. Watch the motion when it begins to close.
It looks like the vertical part of the door hinges in slightly as the door starts to shut. I don’t know how far it would swing out without the hinge, but the expense must have been needed to broaden the potential market.
No decapitations? Counts as a success in my book. Unlike my attempt to win the 100,000 yen prize for developing the world’s closest electric shaver. But technically I won that prize. Damn referrees arbitarily disqualifying me for things that aren’t even mentioned in the rules…
I would call myself a Elon Musk fanboy and I think everybody should follow his lead and humanity would be much better of, but sometimes I think Zach should be fanboying a little less for Tesla, so it doesn’t get to the twelve year old girl next to Justin Bieber level. 😀 These doors are cool, but I am 2m tall so I would probably bang my head a lot on them, so personally I just don’t like them. I guess for smaller people they will be ok.
And you can’t open them in most indoor garages.
Sliding doors like the one on the Fiat Qubo or the Sharan are way more convenient.
Sliding doors have “already been done,” though.
I really think this may be overkill to obtain temporary cachet.
Most indoor garages in the U.S. are tall enough
I think I’d hit my head as well.
1. you can bang your head on many more places with that height. Especially on normal SUVs. The falcon wing door still seems like an improvement to a normal one.
2. Average height for a man is about 178cm if I remember correctly, so you are much taller than the average person. Most people will have absolutely no problem. You just have bad luck being that tall 😉
> The falcon wing door still seems like an improvement to a normal one.
So that is why only 2 of the 4 doors are made like that?
Are you serious? Please look at a Model X picture and explain to me how you would properly engineer falcon wing front doors. The front window is in the way.
You’d design them in?
If the front window is what holding them back, that is their own created problem. Mercedes SLS AMG has driver row gullwing doors.
Ask Tesla what is holding them back. I’m just saying that with the current design it’s impossible and they would’ve needed to design the car different. I’m pretty sure they have their reasons.
I like the part where the man says, “Oh, he had to shut it! That’s kinda ghetto.”
Actually I think the author’s right on this, it’s likely a “mule” feature.
Haha, yeah, I loved the way he said that 😀
I predict the falcon wing doors will be troublesome, but it won’t be my headache (or bump on my forehead,) since I’ll never own a Model X. Wake me up from my Tesla nap when a real Model 3 is spotted in the wild.
I feel the same way.
ME JELLY!
Are we sure this ModX is an actual production model and not a prototype which doesn’t have ‘final version’ doors?