Those of you who have followed me know that I have driven most things. Super sports cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren and Koenigsegg to name a few. I've even test driven Formula 1 twice, but the experience that the Tesla Model X Plaid offered was really something completely new to me!

On my trip to Miami, USA this spring, I stayed with a good friend from Poland called Aleksander and his family. Aleksander has quite a nice little car collection. I have already written about Aleksander's McLaren Artura here on CarsCollection.se, You can read the article here. The week before I left for the US, I borrowed a BMW i7 here at home for a test and an article. Aleksander also has a BMW i7 that is fully equipped with, among other things, the brilliant BMW grill which the Swedish press car did not have. I borrowed Aleksander's BMW i7 and took the pictures for article which you can read here. Besides the McLaren Arturan and BMW i7, Aleksander also has a Cadillac Escalade ESV and he also has a few cars in Poland, a BMW M4 and a Tesla Model S Plaid. But now this article is about his fourth car he has in Florida, a Tesla Model X Plaid that his wife Kamila mostly drives. 

On my trip and my visit to Aleksander and his family, I could borrow any car I wanted. So when I had to drive up to Tampa to borrow and test drive a Tesla Cybertruck, I borrowed the family's Tesla Model X Plaid. By the way, I am the first and still (24 August 2024) the only Swedish journalist to do a test drive article on Tesla Cybertruck. You can read the article here. Borrowing the family's Tesla Model X Plaid is actually something I regret doing in retrospect. The cyber truck felt pale in comparison to the X Plaid!

As I started this article with, I've done most of it. The number of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other super sports cars I've driven and written articles on could go on and on. I have more than once driven Koenigsegg cars, and as I said, I have test-driven Formula 1, not just once but twice. Now, of course, a Formula 1 car is not quite right to compare with. But what I felt is so unique and something I have never experienced before was the acceleration from a standstill in the Tesla Model X Plaid. It is of course worse in a Formula 1 car but then you are prepared for it and are strapped in like a vice and have a helmet on. The Tesla Model X Plaid has a whopping 1,020 horsepower, electric horses too! Torque is 1,000 Newton metres. It took me two days before I even dared to press the gas at the bottom as the acceleration was so brutal. To get such a terrible roller coaster effect when accelerating and as a driver is really something else. The roller coaster effect passengers experience is from a completely different planet. So the power and acceleration was something completely new to me. Add to that the fact that the Tesla Model X Plaid is a family car with room for six people, and you have no reference points to prepare yourself for the fact that it will go faster than anything else. That's what makes it so shocking when you push the gas down hard enough. That the Tesla Model X Plaid is a heavy car, over 2,400kg, and not so sharp when the road starts to turn may be one thing. But straight ahead it goes faster than a rocket.

Then to the second thing that was something completely new for me to experience, Tesla's autopilot system. A system that is not yet allowed here in Sweden and larger parts of Europe. But in the US it is allowed and something I obviously tested. I started by driving a bit in the area where Aleksander and Kamila live before I started my trip to Tampa, a three and a half hour journey. On the way to Tampa, I learnt that you have to keep your hands on the wheel, but loosely. Then you also have to keep your eyes forward. For example, if you look at your mobile phone for too long, the car will tell you three times and the third time it will switch off the autopilot so you have to stop and let the car stand still for 20 minutes before you can continue driving and switch on the autopilot again. But once you have realised this, the car takes care of everything. Motorway entrances and exits, red lights, overtaking. If you are in the left lane and someone comes up behind you and faster than you, the Tesla will move into the right lane and let the car behind pass. The car follows the route entered in the navigation system to the letter. The journey to Tampa was a bit of a test but the journey from there and back to Aleksander and Kamila it did it all by itself. Three and a half hours and the car took care of everything. Absolutely incredible and of course nothing I have experienced before as a driver.

So the power and the autopilot are two completely new experiences for me as a driver and a car journalist. I'm really incredibly impressed. I've been writing about and driving new cars for 16 years, and I've never experienced two things this impressive with a new car, and in a family car at that.

For the pictures of the white Tesla Model X Plaid I borrowed the Swedish press car. The Tesla Model X Plaid I borrowed from Aleksander was unfortunately a bit damaged after Kamila was hit by a car. However, nothing she caused but as I said was hit. But so much that the car was not suitable for photography. But the white Swedish press car did not have the autopilot system, which I got to experience fully on the car I borrowed from Aleksander and Kamila. But the Tesla Model X Plaid really moves the marker forward for how cars can be and will be in the future. Impressive and then, as I said, I have driven most of it. 

Tesla Model X Plaid

Base price: From SEK 1.422 million

Engine: Three engines. One on the front axle and two on the rear axle: 

Stepless automatic transmission, four-wheel drive
Power: 1 020 horsepower, 1 000 newton metres 

Acceleration: 0-100 km/h 2.6 seconds

Top speed: 262 km/h

Range: 547 km
Weight: 2 410 kg
Dimensions (length/width/height): 5 057/1 999/1 680 mm