Model X

The Tesla Model X is an all-electric luxury SUV known for its rear doors that swing up like a falcon's wings, its all-wheel drive, and seating you can set up for five, six, or seven people. It was Tesla's third vehicle and its first SUV, and it was built to prove a simple point: if the biggest, thirstiest kind of mainstream car could go fully electric without giving up speed, space, or safety, then just about any vehicle could.

What is the Model X?

The Model X is a large electric SUV built on the same platform as the Model S sedan. Elon unveiled the prototype on February 9, 2012, at Tesla's design studio in Hawthorne, California, and the first cars reached customers in September 2015. Its signature feature is the pair of falcon wing rear doors, which rise straight up instead of swinging out and need only about 12 inches of side clearance to open, so you can load kids or cargo even in a tight parking spot. Inside, a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter, sold as Bioweapon Defense Mode, pulls 99.97% of particles out of the cabin air.

Why the Model X Exists

The Model X was there to carry Tesla beyond the Model S sedan and into the family part of the market, where people haul kids, gear, and the occasional trailer. Tesla built it on the Model S platform so it could reach these buyers without, in the company's words, stealing many sales from the sedan. It followed Elon's long-running plan of starting with a premium product up top, then driving the cost down toward the mass market. The Model X is that plan made real, a six-figure showcase meant to prove the technology before cheaper Teslas got it.

How it Works

The Model X runs on a 100 kilowatt-hour (kWh) lithium-ion battery, which is roughly enough energy to power an average US home for three days, built from Panasonic cylindrical cells and feeding either two or three electric motors. It slips through the air unusually well for such a tall vehicle, and that helps it turn each charge into more miles. Its rated range climbed from 257 miles for the 2015 launch car to 371 in 2021, then settled between 329 and 352 miles.

The 2012 launch promise was a vehicle with "ludicrously fast acceleration and hospital-grade cabin air quality," and the car that shipped delivered both. The final lineup came in two levels: the Dual Motor all-wheel drive made 670 horsepower, while the three-motor Plaid, at 1,020 horsepower, reached 60 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds. That made a seven-seat SUV, child seat in the third row and all, one of the quickest SUVs ever sold. It could also tow 5,000 pounds, which Tesla billed as a first for an electric vehicle.

The Economics of the Model X

The Model X was a showpiece: low volume, high profit per car, and six-figure prices. When Tesla closed custom orders on April 1, 2026, the Dual Motor listed at $99,990 and the Plaid at $114,990 before fees, and every car came with the Luxe Package, which bundled Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and free Supercharging for life.

Since 2019 Tesla has reported Model X deliveries only inside a combined figure. In 2020 it delivered 57,039 Model S and Model X cars together, against 442,511 Model 3 and Model Y cars.

Current Status of Model X

Tesla stopped taking custom orders on April 1, 2026, raised the price of the cars left in inventory by $15,000 a few days later, and built the last Model X at Fremont in May 2026. It then cleared the S and X lines to build Optimus, its humanoid robot.

The final Plaid traded 17 miles of range for its quicker launch.

What Comes Next

On Tesla's fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call in late January 2026, Elon announced that Model X and Model S production would end by the close of the second quarter of 2026, calling it "an honorable discharge" as Tesla turned the Fremont line toward robots and self-driving. The numbers made the case: Tesla's "other models" group, which includes the Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck, delivered 50,850 of its 1,636,129 vehicles in 2025, about 3%. The move fits how Elon has run the company, sending money and factory space to the product with the biggest payoff, which in 2026 meant Optimus.

The Bottom Line

The Model X proved that a large, fast family SUV could run entirely on batteries, and Tesla built it for more than 10 years before retiring it in May 2026.