We are living in mysterious times. Whoever thought we'd see a family SUV complete a quarter-mile in McLaren 720S' time? The 2022 Tesla Model X Plaid is the quickest SUV in the world. It’s the first time in history you can walk into a Tesla dealership in the morning and smoke a quarter-million-dollar supercar in the evening - with zero fumes.
Electric cars are taking over the auto industry, and not just by making the environment safe. They are thriving in all aspects from tech, maintenance, usability, and most importantly - motorsports.
The 2022 Tesla Model X Plaid isn’t your conventional family crossover. It’ll pick up groceries, take the kids to a soccer game, make the perfect family gateway car, and smoke some throaty V8s at the drag strip.
So what’s the secret ingredient? The folks over at Tesla probably have too much time on their hands. As if Ludicrous mode wasn’t enough, they had to develop the Cheetah mode.
If you are a fan of National Geographic, you know the cheetah is the fastest land mammal on the planet. Turn on this mode on a 2022 Tesla Model X Plaid, and you can say bye-bye to a Lamborghini Huracan Evo.
The 2022 Model X Plaid isn’t just about embarrassing supercars on a drag race. With a starting price of $106,400, you get falcon-wing doors, a funky, strangely shaped yoke steering, a giant center screen, and knobbless controls on the dash.
The new Model X Plaid also has six seats, two on each row. Unlike most crossovers, the third row has excellent headroom thanks to its tear-drop shape. You also get a secondary screen at the back for climate control, cup holders, and USB ports in the third row.
The base model comes standard with two electric motors, one placed at the front and the second at the rear enabling all-wheel-drive capability. The twin-motor setup will do 0 to 62 mph (100 kph) in 3.8 seconds, which is impressive for a three-row family crossover.
On the other hand, the Model X Plaid comes with a tri-motor setup making a whopping 1020 HP. This performance-based Model X will do 0 to 62 mph in 2.5 seconds, making minced meat of top-tier supercars.
It might take-off and achieve speeds only comparable to more than a thousand land mammals combined, but the Model X’s tricks end on the strip.
While the yoke steering is superb, it gets a lot of criticism, especially when it comes to navigating through corners and hill passes. Its handling is also subpar compared to its rivals, including the BMW iX, Jaguar I-Pace, or the Audi e-Tron.
According to Doug DeMuro, it is heavy, oversized, wide, tall, long, and doesn’t quite handle like its competition.
Still, we’ve got to cut Tesla some slack. They might be pioneers in the electric vehicle game but haven’t been around long enough to mesmerize in all aspects of performance.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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