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Hmmm... Interesting. I wonder what the rules are for manufacturer direct trailer sales in the relevant states?
Walter
Even given the idea of the middle seats being forward, there's certainly an illusion that it would be hard to fit that row in comfortably.
The two issues with all SUVs/CUVs with 3rd row seats is access and comfort. It will be interesting to see if TM has addressed both issues. The falcon doors help with access but I agree that if this is close to the final version of the X comfort might be an issue.
anticitizen13.7
Not posting at TMC after 9/17/2018
Headroom is what I'm most concerned about, because of the slope of the rear roof. In my experience, outside of full-size SUVs, one needs to buy a minivan in order to have a decent third row bench.
One large advantage for the electric car, no need to loose space inside for large fuel tank, axcel/tunnel, exchaust pipes...
The battery pack only use some space in the floor.
It should be space to make the 3.row confortable, and I think it looks like the roof is slightely reised in the back on the "beta" pictures.
The battery pack only use some space in the floor.
It should be space to make the 3.row confortable, and I think it looks like the roof is slightely reised in the back on the "beta" pictures.
In all honesty, what that battery pack on the floor does eat into is the height and thus headroom. I agree with the rest of your points, of course, as my signature posts demonstrates.
ICEs don't have much going on in the floor, other than in the middle axel department, of course, which is also often used to route exhaust even in front-wheel drives (a major negative, of course). A traditional benefit of tall sandwich-design ICEs, such as the older A series Mercedes or the rare Audi A2 (hey, it too had a nosecone!) or a bunch of cross-overish solutions has been increased height for passengers, as raising an ICE car higher up frees even more height on the sides. There have been large storage compartments in the rear seat floor (!), for example, in such vehicles - not unlike the trunk of the Model S of course, incidentally one of the two ends of the car without batteries filling up the underneath of it all.
In a skateboard EV, this benefit ICEs and especially sandwich ICEs enjoy is already pretty much used because that space is taken up by batteries, other than the rearmost area in the trunk (used for third-row footwell in Model S) and perhaps the frunk. Model S already sits pretty high up, while one sits in it pretty low. That's the batteries doing it. Model X will, of course, being a higher vehicle to begin with have an easier time, and the mule(s) indeed seem to have more height in the rear... so we shall see.
In anycase, I much prefer a skateboard EV over a sandwich ICE, as far as odd parallels go.
joeinslw
Member
I especially liked the photo of the Model X passing a gas station, was that by design or accident? It doesn't matter though, it was a great shot showing that the Model X or any Tesla doesn't need or require that stop.
MassModel3
Member
7 pictures -- 3 gas stations and one smog station (okay, I think it's the same Shell station in two pictures). Plus the front looks intentionally blurred (retouched).
I'm convinced this was Tesla Motors giving the Fanboys something to talk about and give the reservation holders hope that they're soon going to get a return on their investment (aka: deposit).
Well, yes, in fact, I believe they were doing real testing, because they do have to have to do real testing. Maybe it was serving dual purposes, but testing was likely one of them.
Trev Page
Member
I pulled it all into Photoshop so I can play around with various toning and colour enhancements and I can say for sure that the picture at the top left has been doctored. The amount of artificial pixellation in the front of the car suggests to me that the image was deliberately altered to mask the front of the car. The image in the bottom is left is harder to interpret as the low resolution doesn't have much detail to play with but I can see the front of the car definitely appears to have a lot of black masking going on to hide the details. The other two images to the right show no deliberate alterations.
The windows are of course tinted to the max to hide the interior improvements they've done.
Perhaps these images are a plant by Tesla, we'll probably never know, but I find it curious that that one image was deliberately messed with before being posted online.... hmmmm...
I can go along with some testing but I suspect it was equally if not more important for the Model X mule to be seen so it could be included in the earnings report chatter
Trev Page
Member
Let me fill you in a bit on a disadvantage of the "sandwich" design of the Mcercedes A and B class cars. I used to have a B class (which are sold in the US now but widely available in Canada for years) and had the starter motor die on me right after the warranty ran out. Take a guess where the starter motor is on the B class....
BETWEEN the transmission and the floor of the car!!! They had to drop the motor and transmission almost out of the car to change the starter. Cost: $1500 in parts and labour <- (yes, I'm Canadian as you can tell by the remaining U in that word
Moral of the story: interesting design doesn't alway equate to simpler service issues.
P.S. A year after the starter motor died I had severe problems with the CVT transmission in my B class and it was a well known problem and Mercedes wanted almost $10K for a new tranny. I got rid of that POS.
I'm a bit skeptical that these photos have been doctored, simply because this was on a public street, so they would have to sufficiently cover it up in case somebody else took some photos. But perhaps you can share your images so we can see what you're talking about?
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