I was watching the other day a brief video online that has been doing the rounds recently. This was at the Geneva International Motorshow, and took place in one of the new Tesla Model X cars. As a TV station was conducting an interview with the head of Tesla Germany sitting in the rear seat of a Model X, the CEO of BMW slid in next to him. The reporter soon realized who it was, and asked him what he thought of the new Tesla, and he responded something about it being a prototype. Upon saying this, he moved to exit the car, and ended up banging his head on the not fully opened Falcon Wing doors. Obviously many of the Tesla fan boys have been having a field day about this, saying things like “don’t let the door hit you…oops, too late!”.
As funny as the scene may appear, and I can agree that there is a level of ironic humour there, I do feel that the video actually shows plainly one of the many flaws of these falcon wing doors. Seriously, I fail to see why Tesla decided to have this very complex technological gadget put on what is otherwise a great car. There are actually so many reasons why I wonder about this, and I feel it ultimately is a decision that will come back and bite Tesla a lot more than that little bang on the head of BMW’s CEO.
For starters, it has proven to be very complicated to actually get these doors to the specifications required by Tesla, and after having outsourced the development, they ended up doing it themselves. This has caused considerable delay on the completion of the car, something which is obviously not a good thing when you are in the business of getting products to the market. Apart from delaying potential income from sales, it has also hurt the image of Tesla as the Model S was also late to the market. Potential buyers will certainly be concerned about such a delay, and actual paying customers are beginning to lose patience as their long awaited and expensive cars are not being delivered.
Next is the added weight such a design brings to the car. Just the mechanism required for the door is added weight not normally found on a car. Furthermore, this sort of design then also needs further strengthening of the chassis which also adds weight. Given that one of the primary selling points of the Tesla is the considerable range it provides for an EV, the added weight will negatively impact this as pushing all that extra weight around requires additional power that could have been better spent in extending the range.
We can then look at the practicality of these doors. Sure, they are being put forward as making entering and exiting the vehicle easier on the passenger, and yes I can see this as true. However, how difficult is it really to exit a car with a normal reasonably sized door? On the other hand, it seems obvious that there will be issues when the roof is covered in snow, or even just when it is raining. There are big gaping holes on the roof that are bound to let the elements just fall in to the car. So, in case of snow, it will mean that the user must first fully clear all the snow from the roof from what is a pretty tall car. I’m also wondering how they will behave in case of strong winds etc., or in places with a low roof. Sure, you will say that in a tight parking spot it is hard to get out with normal car doors, but in those cases it really only takes a few seconds to let the passenger out of the car before parking it in the actual spot. With the Model X in a low roof parking, one would have to let the passenger out before actually entering the building. Oh, and even though the speed of opening and closing of the doors is fast, it is nevertheless much slower than a normal door, and I can imagine it very quickly becoming annoying. If it is once in a while like when you forget to close your windows it is not a problem, but every time?
There is more! With such a complex hydraulic and electronic door opening system, there are quite a lot of small elements that can go wrong or break down completely blocking the doors from either opening or closing. Imagine you open the doors to let somebody in, and then they refuse to close perhaps due to a blown fuse. The car will be rendered useless. With normal doors there is never such an issue, even if a mechanical failure in a door lock might have the same effect. However such a mechanical failure can happen in both cases.
As much as the technological complication has added delays and weight to the final car, one can also add a hefty increase in the actual price. This added price will be considerable, even if one might think that if you are paying $130’000 for a car, who cares if it costs $10’000 more or less. I believe that had they gone for a conventional design from the beginning, a much quicker time to market, lower development cost, and a lower production costs would have allowed them to price the car below $100’000.
And finally, even if the Tesla fans are laughing at the BMW CEO, that video clearly shows what is likely to happen on several occasions with every day customers of the car. Something interferes with the opening, or the passenger decides to get out just a tad too soon, and they bang their head against the door. Those edges, although not knife sharp, do look sharp enough to cause some damage, and I can very well imagine a disgruntled client trying to sue Tesla in the not too distant future for just such an incident.
The Model X began being delivered to clients back in December 2015. Now even though the actual numbers are not huge, that means models have been available for the public for some three months. Yet, I have not seen a single proper review of the car conducted by any market specialists. Sure, there have been some test drives reported, but these have all been either in a closed-off parking lot, or just an around the block drive with the car. No in depth test, and certainly no long-term test. I find this both frustrating and strange. I do believe in Tesla products, and even though the Model X is certainly not the type of car I personally would be interested in, I really want to know what it is like. Pretty much any other new car will be fully tested and reported on even before it is released to the public. Sure, such tests are always organized by the producers as they see it as publicity, and perhaps Tesla feel they do not need this sort of publicity, but I also feel these tests allow the public to get a proper opinion of a new product.
So, now the announced presentation of the Model 3 is only weeks away. I really hope Tesla will not screw this one up, and we get to see an intelligently and well-designed compact EV that will revolutionize the car industry. And please Elon, no gull or falcon wing doors!
