Tesla Model X leaves Audi, BMW, Porsche and Mercedes in its dust

Lower car emissions are a European vision. This SUV rocket, ironically from the US, makes them a reality.

The Tesla Model X diminishes Germany’s claim to technical primacy.

When Elon Musk rolled out the new Tesla Model X at the end of last month, some grumbled that the Silicon Valley carmaker’s all-electric luxury crossover was coming to market two years too late.

It depends on who you ask. The big three German carmakers wish they could catch the tail of Musk’s rocket.

I’m not talking about units sold, though Tesla’s target of 50,000 cars this year is a respectable chunk of the global luxury-sedan market. But Tesla has taken more hide off German prestige and sense of technical primacy.

It’s ironic: European carmakers are under intense pressure to cut emissions. Scores of European cities already have restricted vehicle access; in the next decade EU fleet carbon emissions will fall potentially to about 30 per cent below 2005 standards.

In June the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said “it may not be possible” to meet those standards because of the efficiency limits of traditional technology. Compliance costs will make internal combustion power uneconomic.

Events at Volkswagen manifest, rather melodramatically, this approaching juncture, where there is no more blood to be squeezed from the stone. More rigorous emission testing will only hasten the inevitable. The future has a plug. Everybody sees it.

Yet the company furthest down the road of the European vision is American. Volkswagen has nothing like Tesla’s multimodel, vertically integrated electric-car company in the pipeline, much less with its own battery factory.

Mercedes-Benz makes a B-Class electric car based on Tesla technology but it has, as yet, no real stick in the EV ground beyond abasing itself to California clean-air authorities. Meanwhile, Mercedes’ aero-adaptive Concept IAA, revealed at the Frankfurt motor show recently, was like something out of Harley Earl’s closet.

The German company most out of its comfort zone is BMW, with a sustainability project, the i Division, embracing plug-in/EV powertrains as well as lightweight composite construction. Manhattanites will know those cars: the i3 and the lupine i8. They really are fantastic cars.

But at the moment, i Division is still just a €2 billion ($3bn) research project.

The Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and Cadillac ELR are the other mass-produced, dedicated plug-in hybrid/EVs. I wonder if any traditional carmaker whose existence does not hang in the balance can ever have enough belly for the EV long game?

Even if the Germans had market-bound EVs in mass quantities, there is the charging problem. As John Voelcker of Green Car Reports notes, the luxury incumbents have no plans to challenge Tesla on charging availability. Tesla has hundreds of charging stations in the US and Europe and plans for more.

Porsche’s show car, the Mission E, tries to cover this bald spot in Porsche’s business plan. First, the car: dead cool, luscious, voluptuous, draped over four mighty wheels, the Mission E offers a beguiling tease of next-generation Panamera styling. One hopes. It also previews Porsche’s probable path to an EV supercar, with two ferocious traction motors fore and aft and the slab of lithium-ion batteries back lining the floorboards, very like a Model S.

While the Mission E’s 0-100km/h is given as 3.5 seconds — not quite as convulsively fast as a Model S in Ludicrous Mode (2.8s) — that’s only in a straight line. You don’t need to be Michael Schumacher to appreciate what 450kW, 1.3m height and centre of mass about 15cm off the ground could do.

There is much promise there. But then the Mission E resorts to jiggery-pokery. The car’s 800 volt system allows superfast charging: 80 per cent capacity in 15 minutes, which pencils out to 400km of range. The problem for Porsche is the availability of 800V charging, which as far as I know is none. Will owners keep the chargers at home, next to their industrial welders?

Over on the next stand at the Frankfurt show, Audi was proudly displaying its E-tron Quattro Concept, an EV luxe-truck with three electric motors and 500km range aimed right at the Model X. Built on Volkswagen’s future-proofed modular architecture, the Q6-sized SUV will be the brand’s first mass-production EV. Looks great, sounds promising. Due date: 2018.

I am struck by the lag time. This isn’t about profit and loss but industry leadership. The Germans are headed where Tesla already is and seem in no hurry to get there. At least they were not before events of the past month.

Tesla Model X: Seven-seat electric SUV

Engines: Two electric motors, front and rear

Combined outputs: 386kW (P90D) or 568kW (P90D) and 966Nm

Transmission: Single speed, all-wheel drive

Range: 400km

Price: from $US80,000 ($110,500)

Available: late 2016