Model X vs. Model S – Tesla Vehicle Head-To-Head

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The electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has achieved a great deal over the last few years. It’s not that long ago that the concept of the electric car seemed like a remote one, and a notion that many traditional car manufacturers, designers and buyers ridiculed resolutely.

But Tesla has proved emphatically that such vehicles can reach a significant market, and even be perceived as cool and desirable. The Tesla Model S has been a hugely successful vehicle for the company, and helped establish Tesla as a large corporation and a significant part of the future of the motoring landscape in the United States. This is no small achievement given the domination of the US car market by a small raft of elite and gargantuan auto makers.

Tesla Model X vs Model S

Tesla Model S

Model S success

The Model S has been a hugely commercial and critically successful release for Tesla, and has helped establish the prestigious and growing reputation of the company. Since its initial release in June, 2012, the Model S has shifted nearly 50,000 units worldwide. It also became the first electric car to top the monthly new car sales ranking in any country, anywhere on the planet, when it twice topped this list in the Scandinavian nation of Norway in September and December, 2013.

Additionally, this Tesla vehicle has lapped up a number of prestigious awards, having been named 2013 World Green Car of the Year, 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year, Automobile Magazine’s 2013 Car of the Year, Time Magazine Best 25 Inventions of the Year 2012 award and Consumer Reports’ top-scoring car ever.

But no matter how successful the vehicle is, there comes a time when the range of automobiles offered by the manufacturer must be freshened up. It is with this intention that Tesla has announced, and will release in the near future, the Model X. This is a full-size crossover utility vehicle, which Tesla states will hit the market sometime in the third quarter of 2015. Given the huge delays already associated with this vehicle, this could be a tad optimistic, and as ValueWalk reported, even consumers who pre-order now are unlikely to receive one until 2016 at the earliest.

Model X Buzz

But there is a huge amount of buzz attached to the Model X, and it is intriguing to consider how it compares to the existing and successful Model S. The first thing to note is that the Model X will weight about 10 percent more than its Model S cousin. This shouldn’t be a massive issue, but this will naturally have an impact on the power-to-weight ratio of the vehicle.

It is also clear that Tesla hasn’t completely abandoned the template of the Model S with this vehicle, given the fact that 60 percent of the parts used in the Model X will be identical to those utilized in the manufacture of the Model S.

Tesla Model X

Battery efficiency

The Model S comes equipped with a 60 or 85 kWh battery; it is interesting to note that the larger Model X will not make any increase on this figure, which perhaps indicates that Tesla has found ways to manage power saving and usage more efficiently in this forthcoming vehicle. If that is not the case, then it can actually be expected that the Model X will travel less distance on one charge than its predecessor, but it seems pretty likely that Tesla will have something up its sleeve in this department.

While it is always slightly dubious to pay heed to the claims of the car manufacturers with regard to mileage and efficiency, it is claimed that he Tesla Model X will travel around 300 miles on a single charge. This would be a significant improvement over the Model S, which could venture 270 miles on just one charge of its battery. Given the power differential between the two vehicles this shouuld be seen as a bigger step forward over the Model S than it might appear in raw data terms.

Super fast

This is an extremely fast vehicle. The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, has already bragged about how powerful the Model X is, and according to specs provided by Tesla, it will accelerate from 0 to 60 in 4.4 seconds. This means that its acceleration is roughly 25% percent superior to the Model S, and also making it competitive with the majority of sports cars and the fastest SUVs as well.

The Model X will be slightly larger than the Model S in all departments, but it must be said that there is a fairly trivial difference in size between the two vehicles. The wheelbase of the Model S is 116.5 inches, which is only 4 inches less than the newer vehicle.

Size difference

Additionally, the length and width of the Model S is comparable to this new Tesla utility vehicle. The Model X will be 197 inches in length and 82 inches in width, while the Model S, which was 77.3 inches wide and 195.9 inches long. This represents less than 1 percent difference in length, and around a 5% variation in width.

However, the Model X will be significantly higher than the Model S. While the Model S was a mere 56.5 inches in height, the knew vehicle will be 64 inches in this direction. This variance was really to be expected given the utility vehicle status of the Model X.

The spec list for the Model X is extremely impressive, and it is easy to comprehend why some pre-order customers are willing to wait two years to get their hands on one.

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