Tesla Model X Falcon-Wing Door Opening & Closing - VIDEO

Some spy shooters recently landed a gold mine while at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California — they caught the Tesla Model X on camera with one of its falcon-wing doors opening and closing!! Sort of surprising that no one caught one before now, but just a few days before the official unveiling, it’s the perfect way to cap several months of fun spy shots and videos.

Here’s the video (published yesterday), which was shared on the Tesla Motors Club forum by the brother of the driver (and brother-in-law of the “videographer”):

The commentary is pretty funny. And regarding the “ghetto” extra push needed to shut the falcon-wing door, I think it’s safe to say that’s an idiosyncrasy of the mule and won’t be how things roll in the production vehicles.

I will give my own 2¢ on what we just saw, though: the opening and closing of the doors is subtler than I expected. I think that’s a big win and will make the car seem super slick to many on-lookers. That is going to be a demand pull — people will want that super cool feature.

There’s plenty of debate about whether the extra effort and delays to get the falcon-wing doors right were worth it. I think you’ve got to be crazy or smoking crack to think they weren’t. These doors will catch so many eyes. Once you’ve got people’s attention, “Yeah, it is quicker than almost every car ever mass produced but seats 7… comfortably. Wanna drive it for a minute?” Cha-ching!

This is a beautiful car and the falcon-wing-doors are the halo feature. And best of all for many buyers: they will make ingress/egress much easier, and make loading mini humans and cargo into the back seats much easier. Brilliant.

Sir Elon Musk gets a lot of praise for plenty of brilliant ideas and wise moves on the chess board of the auto industry, but I think this is one that stands out. Ironic that so many people criticize him for it. I can’t really put myself in that thought process well enough to “get it,” I guess.

3 days till the official unveiling and initial deliveries. Who’s getting excited?!