2017 Model X vs 2023 Model X

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here it is. And it might help somebody that is looking into buying a 2023 X.

2023 Model X vs 2017 Model X
This will not be a power/spec/features comparison, instead I will try to be brief about what caught my attention. I recently upgraded from M3 to MX and the MX is now in the service center for fixing the panel gaps (sounds normal now) and for some weird alerts that came up about none of the ADAS features being available (cruise control, autosteer, emergency braking etc), no regen either. That went away in a few hours, but was pretty scary. So while I am waiting for my X to be "fixed" I got a 2017 MX as a loaner. I've been driving M3 and MY for the past 5 years and have completely forgotten what the old S and X driving was feeling like. The 2023 X felt much like a Y with more features. When I got behind the wheel of the 2017 X I started having flashbacks. I will try to summarize:

2017 vs 2023 Model X differences
1. The 2017 front doors so you can enter/exit without touching the door. 2023's doors only staj ajar and you have to hand-wrestle the motors to open them. If there is a way to adjust/set the doors to open - please let me know.
2. Dashboard screen (instrument panel) is customizable - you can put a clock, navigation, trip counters, media, energy meter (with average KWh/m for past 30 miles) etc. The 2023 only has this little (almost invisible) bar on the bottom that shows power.
3. The regen is significantly weaker on the 2017 and there is no option for the car to completely stop on its own. If you get it to a complete stop it will roll back or forward depending on the angle of the road (it doesn't take much). I remembered that you can keep it still (on hold) by pressing the brake pedal harder after the car is not moving. Then the H symbol shows on the instrumental panel.
4. The portrait screen is by far more ergonomic to operate. You have your arm on the arm rest and not having it "hanging the air". Even so, I like the landscape better and if I get to choose again - it will be landscape even with the "hanging arm".
5. Only a month of stalkless driving and now it is annoying Not to mention this car has 4 of them! (well one is a tiny one that you do not get to use while driving, but still..)
6. I know I already mentioned the Energy app, but still - the only way to see what your consumption is in a 2023 X is by opening the Trip counters. Energy app only shows estimation and other crap data that is useless. BY the way, the CONTROL/DISPLAY on the 2017 has Energy Display setting options as Percentage and Distance, but also Rated and Ideal when Distance is selected. I found the Ideal to be very close to real life usage estimation.
7. No ultrasonic sensors means no Summon / Smart Summon.

I will not get into the center console, vents etc, just wanted to share some points I think are important. And if it is not clear by now - some of the updates are unfortunately downgrades... I think...

There might be more things I do not recall for now, but I will post if I remember.

"Render - Tesla Model X 2017 By Alang7™" by Alang7™ is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail

 

[TespaceX]

Honestly I don’t think the ride quality and comfort of any Tesla comes close to the e-tron or EQS. That’s simply not their forte. But right now if you plan on DCFC road trips, the non Tesla DCFC experience simply isn’t realistic for a lot of trips and even when the day comes when the supercharger network truly opens up the pricing of it is looking to be rather steep.

I think you’ll want to consider what you plan on using the car for.

BTW I think a lot of the seat comfort is like mattress shopping. The thing that feels most comfortable at first is the thing that will have your back in agony 8 hours later. I find the 23 seats strike a perfect balance between soft yet supportive.

With the Tesla network opening up next year, and the adoption of NACS, the Tesla network exclusive benefit is going to be a non-factor, IMO.
In fact, I don't know how much I'd rely on it as I do now since because for sure it will get congested. There's already always a wait at my nearest superchargers even during a weekday and in the middle of the day when charging rates ($) are highest.

 

[David29]

Honestly I don’t think the ride quality and comfort of any Tesla comes close to the e-tron or EQS. That’s simply not their forte. But right now if you plan on DCFC road trips, the non Tesla DCFC experience simply isn’t realistic for a lot of trips and even when the day comes when the supercharger network truly opens up the pricing of it is looking to be rather steep.

I think you’ll want to consider what you plan on using the car for.

BTW I think a lot of the seat comfort is like mattress shopping. The thing that feels most comfortable at first is the thing that will have your back in agony 8 hours later. I find the 23 seats strike a perfect balance between soft yet supportive.

I agree, I am very concerned about the business of charging on the road. But we hardly ever go far enough to use a Supercharger, and the CCS charging is going to get better, so I think it is OK to focus on my comfort for 99% of the time.
I agree about car seats. I will say that I have almost never had a car seat that I felt was comfortable, and have used after-market seat cushions for 20 years or more.

 

[Sunshine Speed]

With the Tesla network opening up next year, and the adoption of NACS, the Tesla network exclusive benefit is going to be a non-factor, IMO.

Actually, I don’t think it’s well understood that non Teslas will only be able to charge at around half of the Supercharger stations when the network opens up next year, they committed to 12,000 ports. Look into it. Tesla is nearing 20,000 already. The congested stations will only allow Teslas to charge. If you want dependable level 3 charging, then Tesla is your only option.

 

[chillaban]

With the Tesla network opening up next year, and the adoption of NACS, the Tesla network exclusive benefit is going to be a non-factor, IMO.
In fact, I don't know how much I'd rely on it as I do now since because for sure it will get congested. There's already always a wait at my nearest superchargers even during a weekday and in the middle of the day when charging rates ($) are highest.

I am personally skeptical of a few aspects of this magically becoming a non issue:

1. Based off the speed of permitting and construction of supercharging stations to date, and the whopping 2 stations in CA so far, I don’t expect to wake up next spring and magically every station is v4. Plus a lot of our stations are still 150kW or 72kW designs and there doesn’t seem to be any plans to convert those to CCS-capable.
2. There’s somewhat of a premium price for being a non-Tesla charging at the stations with Magic Docks. (40c vs 50c, 35c vs 47c). If you travel a lot then this starts adding up.
3. Not all DCFC reliability issues are the station’s fault. Our Lightning when we first got it had maybe a 20% failure rate even on Magic Docks. The DCFC controller has had 5 software updates that I’ve applied and now it’s maybe a 5% failure rate but it’s not like any of our Teslas where you feel comfortable leaving the car to go grab food.
4. Ford/Porsche/Audi trip planning accuracy is much worse than our Teslas. I’ve had a few Lightning trips where it estimated 45% at arrival but even driving the speed limit I ended up barely arriving with 15%. This never happens with Tesla’s trip planner.
5. There’s still a lot of unknowns about how much the charge curve and battery longevity. Tesla has a much longer track record with extensive DCFC usage.

Like yes the situation will gradually get better but IMO by the time it actually is better and a non issue, I’m gonna be ready to trade in the car I buy today.

 

[TespaceX]

I am personally skeptical of a few aspects of this magically becoming a non issue:

1. Based off the speed of permitting and construction of supercharging stations to date, and the whopping 2 stations in CA so far, I don’t expect to wake up next spring and magically every station is v4. Plus a lot of our stations are still 150kW or 72kW designs and there doesn’t seem to be any plans to convert those to CCS-capable.
2. There’s somewhat of a premium price for being a non-Tesla charging at the stations with Magic Docks. (40c vs 50c, 35c vs 47c). If you travel a lot then this starts adding up.
3. Not all DCFC reliability issues are the station’s fault. Our Lightning when we first got it had maybe a 20% failure rate even on Magic Docks. The DCFC controller has had 5 software updates that I’ve applied and now it’s maybe a 5% failure rate but it’s not like any of our Teslas where you feel comfortable leaving the car to go grab food.
4. Ford/Porsche/Audi trip planning accuracy is much worse than our Teslas. I’ve had a few Lightning trips where it estimated 45% at arrival but even driving the speed limit I ended up barely arriving with 15%. This never happens with Tesla’s trip planner.
5. There’s still a lot of unknowns about how much the charge curve and battery longevity. Tesla has a much longer track record with extensive DCFC usage.

Like yes the situation will gradually get better but IMO by the time it actually is better and a non issue, I’m gonna be ready to trade in the car I buy today.

1. The Supercharger station doesn’t have to have a Magic dock or be a V4 for non-teslas to use starting next year. Many automakers that have decided to go NACS will be providing their owners with adaptors to use on existing superchargers. That’s their transition to going fully NACS in 2025.

2. It’s the same price for non-Teslas at the Magic dock station as long as you pay a $12.99 monthly membership. Pretty much most people will pay that for the larger, better network.

3. Having driven a Bolt, Ioniq6, iX, and Rivian, 99.9% of charging problems were of the EA or EVgo charger, not the car.

4. Pretty sure there would be some kind of Tesla backend baked into other cars for supercharging.

5. I don’t know of anyone that charges their non-Tesla any differently from their Tesla. I certainly don’t, and I’ve not have any unique problems.

 

[chillaban]

1. The Supercharger station doesn’t have to have a Magic dock or be a V4 for non-teslas to use starting next year. Many automakers that have decided to go NACS will be providing their owners with adaptors to use on existing superchargers. That’s their transition to going fully NACS in 2025.

Sure I think the adapters will be interesting but so far that’s yet to happen. I consider cars rapidly depreciating assets with 2-4 years of useful lifespan for me before I look to upgrade. I tend to make decisions based off the landscape today and not promises of how the future will be different.

2. It’s the same price for non-Teslas at the Magic dock station as long as you pay a $12.99 monthly membership. Pretty much most people will pay that for the larger, better network.

Well in CA the TOU stations even with the 12.99 fee only gives you the highest on peak Tesla rate. And nobody is guaranteeing any of these prices stick when the network is larger. Even EA Pass+ prices have been steadily increasing.

3. Having driven a Bolt, Ioniq6, iX, and Rivian, 99.9% of charging problems were of the EA or EVgo charger, not the car.

How do you know that? I have the software on Ford’s side to dump DCFC data and it’s often the case where the station UI blames the car and the car blames the station. Not to mention you right now still have to jump through hoops to activate battery preconditioning on other EVs. Since we are talking about the 2023 X here: do any of your other EVs readily charge at 240-260kW and replenish 50% SOC in 17 minutes? That’s where the latest Model X pack is on 370V chargers.

4. Pretty sure there would be some kind of Tesla backend baked into other cars for supercharging.

That would be cool to see but there is no sign right now of Tesla as an auto supplier for DCFC/BMS hardware and it is usually 5 years for traditional automakers from qualification to shipping to customers.

5. I don’t know of anyone that charges their non-Tesla any differently from their Tesla. I certainly don’t, and I’ve not have any unique problems.

I don’t really know of anyone with a non Tesla that puts the same 100-200k DCFC miles on a non-Tesla EV to state that their long term energy management strategy works as well as Tesla’s. Remember even with the nosecone generation of Teslas and the 5 or so revisions of the 90kWh batteries, Tesla has struggled and had to temporarily impose severe limits on DCFC speed, starting with primitive current limits based of cycle counts before developing more advanced algorithms. Has all of the other EVs caught up with this and have the real world DCFC miles to prove it?


At any rate, I’m really not trying to disparage non Tesla EVs. I just think right now there is a clear advantage to Teslas for DCFC-based road tripping and right now there’s measurable and clear advantages. Sure as early as 2024-2025 based off the current press releases there will be changes that promise to close that gap. If that happens, great, you’ll hear me immediately change my tune to reflect the market landscape. Until then I think it’s a bit unrealistic if not misleading to dismiss the Tesla + SuC combo as being soon to be irrelevant just based off some press releases and all of 20 out of 20,000 stations that managed to allow third party vehicles in 6 months since the first announcements.

 

[Coppertop]

I’m trading in my 2017 Model X 75D Saturday for a 2023 X using the FUSC transfer. Before I give the 2017 to tesla for their paltry trade-in price, I have a few questions:

I have 22” rims on my 2017 X (the black ones that were free via the referral program). The new X will have the stock 20'' Cyberstream Wheels. Should I take the 22” wheels off my 2017 X before trading it in? I still have the stock 20” wheels the 2017 came with. The 22” wheels do significantly impact the range in my experience, and I do like having more range.

I have the 3d maxpider mats in the front seats and tesla mats in frunk and trunk- will any of these work with the 2023 X? Are they worth keeping to try?

I like my key fobs on the old X. Can these be reprogrammed for the 2023 X?

Any use for the leather drawer I had made that fits under the screen of the 2017 X?

Thanks all!

 

[asterothe]

I can reply for fobs: No. They are using different tech. Need to buy new ones from Tesla.(or Ebay) Even the shop said it was out of stock when I got the car the SC was able to sell me one.

 

[Coppertop]

I can reply for fobs: No. They are using different tech. Need to buy new ones from Tesla.(or Ebay) Even the shop said it was out of stock when I got the car the SC was able to sell me one.

Thanks for the key fob intel. Does the new key fob enable the self presenting drivers door to open better than the phone or key card? I really use that feature and typically have the key fob in my purse, so it’s not a big deal to carry.

 

[asterothe]

Thanks for the key fob intel. Does the new key fob enable the self presenting drivers door to open better than the phone or key card? I really use that feature and typically have the key fob in my purse, so it’s not a big deal to carry.

I have an S and it works fine. My 17 and 23 S are working the same, presenting handles. I did not want to use cards and/or phone so on the delivery day I got the fob.

 

[Bixby MS]

Good read and I mostly agree with what others have said. Coming from a 2019 pre-raven S, I too prefer the vertical screen and USS front doors for summon but every time I hop in it just feels old, slow and outdated. Also, I can't directly compare the old and new model X headlights but the new matrix headlights are really impressive.

For the new X fobs, is it true that you need to double click to unlock the car first, then press on the sides to open the FWD? If so, I'll stick to the phone and one touch tap.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Hopefully I can answer that next week when I pick up our new X.

Here is a comparison between the 2021 and 2024

Model X 2021 Comparisons – TeslaTap

teslatap.com

 

[shaia8]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here it is. And it might help somebody that is looking into buying a 2023 X.

2023 Model X vs 2017 Model X
This will not be a power/spec/features comparison, instead I will try to be brief about what caught my attention. I recently upgraded from M3 to MX and the MX is now in the service center for fixing the panel gaps (sounds normal now) and for some weird alerts that came up about none of the ADAS features being available (cruise control, autosteer, emergency braking etc), no regen either. That went away in a few hours, but was pretty scary. So while I am waiting for my X to be "fixed" I got a 2017 MX as a loaner. I've been driving M3 and MY for the past 5 years and have completely forgotten what the old S and X driving was feeling like. The 2023 X felt much like a Y with more features. When I got behind the wheel of the 2017 X I started having flashbacks. I will try to summarize:

2017 vs 2023 Model X differences
1. The 2017 front doors so you can enter/exit without touching the door. 2023's doors only staj ajar and you have to hand-wrestle the motors to open them. If there is a way to adjust/set the doors to open - please let me know.
2. Dashboard screen (instrument panel) is customizable - you can put a clock, navigation, trip counters, media, energy meter (with average KWh/m for past 30 miles) etc. The 2023 only has this little (almost invisible) bar on the bottom that shows power.
3. The regen is significantly weaker on the 2017 and there is no option for the car to completely stop on its own. If you get it to a complete stop it will roll back or forward depending on the angle of the road (it doesn't take much). I remembered that you can keep it still (on hold) by pressing the brake pedal harder after the car is not moving. Then the H symbol shows on the instrumental panel.
4. The portrait screen is by far more ergonomic to operate. You have your arm on the arm rest and not having it "hanging the air". Even so, I like the landscape better and if I get to choose again - it will be landscape even with the "hanging arm".
5. Only a month of stalkless driving and now it is annoying Not to mention this car has 4 of them! (well one is a tiny one that you do not get to use while driving, but still..)
6. I know I already mentioned the Energy app, but still - the only way to see what your consumption is in a 2023 X is by opening the Trip counters. Energy app only shows estimation and other crap data that is useless. BY the way, the CONTROL/DISPLAY on the 2017 has Energy Display setting options as Percentage and Distance, but also Rated and Ideal when Distance is selected. I found the Ideal to be very close to real life usage estimation.
7. No ultrasonic sensors means no Summon / Smart Summon.

I will not get into the center console, vents etc, just wanted to share some points I think are important. And if it is not clear by now - some of the updates are unfortunately downgrades... I think...

There might be more things I do not recall for now, but I will post if I remember.

View attachment 984998
"Render - Tesla Model X 2017 By Alang7™" by Alang7™ is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail

Nice write up.
I drove a 2017 Model X … since 2017 and am now in my 3rd week of driving a 2023 Model X.
The struggle with opening the 2023 front doors is real (compared to the 2017) and loss of Auto Summon and Smart Summon is simply disappointing. After 7 years, I used that feature to park the vehicle in my garage often.
The 2023 is everything you wrote in your article.
I personally think suspension is better, seats are sooo much more comfortable in the 2023, obviously acceleration is much greater (coming from a standard 2017 MX to a standard 2023) 417 hp vs 670 hp.
I’ve got a a few more complaints to make, but I’ll end here.

 

[shaia8]

Good read and I mostly agree with what others have said. Coming from a 2019 pre-raven S, I too prefer the vertical screen and USS front doors for summon but every time I hop in it just feels old, slow and outdated. Also, I can't directly compare the old and new model X headlights but the new matrix headlights are really impressive.

For the new X fobs, is it true that you need to double click to unlock the car first, then press on the sides to open the FWD? If so, I'll stick to the phone and one touch tap.

Good question. I ordered my FOB last week and UPS shows it arriving this week. I will follow up. Been using the phone as the FOB, and that is strange (coming from a 2017 FOB).

 

[asterothe]

fob works the same way after you program.

 

[shaia8]

fob works the same way after you program.

@asterothe Thanks!

 

[asterothe]

@asterothe Thanks!

You are welcome. I have an S but the exact path I went from 17 to 23.

 

[Bixby MS]

Good question. I ordered my FOB last week and UPS shows it arriving this week. I will follow up. Been using the phone as the FOB, and that is strange (coming from a 2017 FOB).

Have been using the new fob for a while and you just have to double tap the top.