Featured Tesla Model X Not Nearly As Successful As It Should’ve Been

Speculation on my part but I understood reports a couple of years ago claimed Tesla had flat-lined some of the luxury car market. That finally got the attention of those selling the big ticket, high margin cars to 'wake up'. I'm not having a lot of luck finding the original source (not my area of expertise) :
Tesla shows how the Model S is totally disrupting the Large Luxury car market in the US | Electrek

Bob Wilson

 

2 key quotes jump out at me: 'one would think model x would have outpaced model s sales'
and: 'model x hasn't proven to be the key player it was expected to be'

i guess we need musks own words, pre manufacture and delivery, especially what he was telling investors.
and what projections did he put out there?

i thought x sales were going along swimmingly, but this kind of article is something i expect more from yahoo, than inside ev's.

 

IMHO 21K model Xs in 6 months exceeds my expectations as a stock holder. But they would have sold a lot more by now if they had they gotten them to customers earlier, and hadn't had the initial quality problems. Count me in on the shareholders that disagreed with falcon doors.

Definitely musk thought by now model X would outsell the S. I never thought so though.

 

interesting. his first real misstep? how do we know that s sales aren't stronger than expected?

 

oh but they do mention production numbers;

"not nearly as successful as it should be..." .... Gee - imagine ... for all intents purposes, a $100K or more EV sports sedan with 25% greater sales, compared to an even MORE expensive SUV ..... go figure!
We all should really be scratching our heads over that. Right ... it's almost as confounding that hybrid sales aren't flying like hotcakes - with record cheap gas prices. No drama in THAT concept either.

kidding aside, I'm actually surprised it's selling as well as it does - with the various nickel-&-dime issues that some owners (including yours truly) report ... everything from grunts & groans, windshield ghosting, fit & finish, AND, a whopping ½ year after promising autopilot 2 would be up & running as smooth as silk, it's still squirrely, with numerous over-the-air software updates, still tweaking the twitchy/squirrely system (well ok, AP2 affects BOTH models), plus auto rain sensing wiper & AEB (auto emergency braking) isn't yet dialed in. The hard core fans overlook things - saying the tweaks are slow coming because Musk has so many irons in the fire ... Space X, gigafactory, Model 3, even Union moles' sabotage efforts. But if any owners are going to be quick to be demanding & get hysterical - it's the group that pays 6 figures or more for transportation. They WILL be demanding. Musk is lucky - the X is the only SUV-EV game in town. Tesla is burning thru cash - so until Porsche gets their SUV-EV to market - X owners complaints of slow tweaks will likely continue to get (in essence) a take-it-or-leave-it affect. so yeah, considering all that? it's selling pretty darn well imo.
.

 

seems like a bit of a hatchet job, but i'm not familiar with the author.

 

Is it going to be the $100k market, though?

They're used to poor reliability in high-end cars, and often have multiple cars.

It's the mainstream that Tesla has to nail to maintain positive public perception.

 

I think all the Germans have joined the plug in band wagon, and the Model S beating their high end sedans in sales played a part in that.
Model X sales expectations may have been overrated based on the Model S success, but they are two different markets where buyers can have different views at plug ins.
But as someone that thinks the Model S is an expensive car, higher priced played a part in regards to the X sales.

 

Could part of the lagging sales be due to the target audience not having any desire to plug it in to recharge? If you have a couple of young kids to herd around, plugging in when getting home seems it might be something that's easily overlooked.

 

when you have 100k for a car, you probably have 200, and can afford to have an s in your stable.
the wealthy soccer moms i know, don't care to have an extra car, and shop by the highest prestige they can afford. as for who else is buying $100,000. suv's, i have no idea. it's all women around here.

 

hardly ... Plug & unplug at home, once a week .... 20 seconds tops.

Costco?



5 minutes ... once you drive there, and finally get to the front of the line.
.

 

yes, but it's a change some won't or haven't considered. also, there's the range anxiety problem.

 

It's the same as when the Model T overtook the horsey. Cars became ubiquitous & the same thing is happening w/ high power DC charge stations.

It just takes time. Even the handwringers will eventually come around - maybe even in our lifetime.

.

 

Why do you think they had kids? Make them do it. <grins>

Bob Wilson

 

With all their electronic gizmos, kids might be better at remembering to plug something in for charging.

 

Iduno - if the 20 seconds once or 2X a week is too demanding for parents & kids .... there's always the wireless charging method;


Wireless Charging For Tesla Model S Now Being Delivered By Plugless - Gallery and Video Of Process
Too costly for our blood .... & ~10% more loss-ie than wired charging. I'll take my chances on not being forgetful.

.

 

Lexus RX is number one selling midsize/large Luxury SUV in the US. It is a lot less expensive than the model X. Model X, accelerates better and handles better, but those are not features that most Luxury SUVs sell on. 2017 Lexus RX350 &#8211; Review &#8211; Car and Driver . As musk himself said these are the features needed in a sport sedan like the model S, and upcoming model 3.

Fit and finish are going to be better in the RX. The luxury level is higher in a less expensive SUV.

Want seats for 7, the MDX is the best seller and also much less expensive than the model X.
2017 Acura MDX | Cargo Space and Storage Review | Car and Driver

One complaint about the model X and part of the reason for the falcon door, is the middle seats don't fold down. The much less expensive mdx and all its other large competitors do this.

Still sales are very good considering the higher price and not hitting all the marks a Luxury SUV buyer wants. I expect the model Y will look at the rav4/cr-v and Lexus RX and make sure it competes well with them on SUV features on a different platform, but sharing the expensive BEV parts of the model 3. Musk says 2019 for the model Y midsize SUV, but IMHO it won't ship in volume until 2021. I don't know when they started but it takes time for a clean sheet design. I'm sure they can speed up by working with someone like adient (used to be jci) to design the interior to their specs, but the rest will need to be from bench marking competitors, and internal R&D.

 

Model X now offers 2nd row fold down's;

We didn't order 'til that became available. Had some pretty long lumber back there, that wouldn't have otherwise fit w/out folding 2nd row.
.

 

Cool, so they fixed that mistake. I think you agree with me though, and not the article. It is selling well for what it is. The RX, cadilac CT5, MDX, Q7, and Escalade are some tough competition in the luxury SUV game. I think the model Y will sell fantastically, and scare lexus and cadilac if they do it right, BMW and Mercedes are already preparing to have improved phev luxury SUVs.

 

true
The Masters of fit & finish are Audi - & they promise to be 1st (early 2018) to chase model X. This is the auto show version .... touting a 311 mile range;

That's a dozen or so miles more than the X. If it's all that it's cracked up to be , it will pay a lot of penance over the dieselgate Scandal - imo
.