If you missed the live stream they just posted it here:
http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx
The gull-wing-in-a-tight-space starts at ~18 mins in
http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx
The gull-wing-in-a-tight-space starts at ~18 mins in
Those doors lift quite high, and some garages or underground parking lots, have low ceiling. Though, this car is so expensive that probably a customer will have a garage the size of normal house..
Edit: It is at 20 minutes in.
I get that their goal is to create some iconic look, and when someone sees that car/door shape, people would say "Oh, it's Tesla".
I want vechicles/appliances/electronics/watches that can be repaired at a reasonable price. I don't like throwing stuff away, being held hostage, or forced to buy the next model.
Whenever my father bought a new vechicle, he would immediatly buy a Factory Service manual. At the time, I thought he was being cheap, but boy was I wrong. I ended up picking up a lot of my dad's traights. This one saved me thousands over the years.
My father's last truck had the option for power windows. I asked him why he didn't get that option. He was retired, and had money to burn. He told me, "I can roll up my own windows! Plus, it's another thing that will break down!" (This was before automobile companies finally got all the weak spots out of electric windows.) (I used exclamation points because he was always uptight/mad?) Well that was his last vechicle. He died too soon. I miss you dad. I wish you were happier in life.
As an proud Union Electrician, he would have liked the Tesla, as long as he could work on it.
They still break. Just replacing the switch is over $300 for most cars. I'll stay with my crank windows.
I live in a place with rather hostile weather in the winter time. I'd be a bit wary of getting a Tesla, not because of the reduced range in the winter (it's still good enough for me) but because I'm afraid the fancy door handles would freeze shut. But I guess this is a moot point, because if I could afford a Tesla, I could also afford a garage to store it in.
Unless a major breakthrough in drive-train technology comes along that can be taken advantage of we're in the long slow march of the optimizing process where you spend 90% of your resources to get that last 10% of performance.