In the delivery thread Model X 5 Seat Deliveries we have been keenly following the story of the Model 5-seater trunk configurations. Also the threads Speculation: Model X five seater is missing a panel to hide seat bottoms? and 5 seaters, how is your load floor supported behind the 2nd row? have gathered info related to this.
I decided to do a short history to document the evolultion of the Model X 5-seater trunk. As we know the 5-seater finally started deliveries in late Q4/2016 after a delay of 6 or 12 months depending on your math. The 5-seater trunk introduced a new "storage compartment" in the area where the third row seat bottoms reside in the 6/7-seater. Initially this area was simply left empty, but the design calls for panels to cover this area. This is where our story starts.
When we first saw our Model X 5-seater, it was through a hasty Photoshop in Tesla's Design Studio, where this storage compartment cover behind the second row was first seen in early November, 2016. There are all sorts of mistakes in this image, for example it shows the third row air vents (removed in the five seater) and brightening the image up shows other areas simply deleted from 6/7 seater imagery.
But there is a thing of note here that could speak of design evolution, not just Photoshopping skills on the Design Studio team, the storage compartment cover is without any kind of mechanism to lift it. Also, the storage compartment cover is not hugging the sides on the curving walls near the falcon wings, but is straight. Some of this is just the quality of the Photoshop edit, but some will matter in a moment.
Second time we saw the render of the five-seater was quickly afterwards, after a different resolution render was found in the Design Studio (below, in lightened up form). You can note that in some ways this design looks rather nothing like the final, though, as there are weird protrusions/extensions coming out of the second row, but it was a much more production quality image, removing the third row air vent for example. And for the first time it shows the storage compartment, a leather loop on the horizontal storage compartment cover and a new vertical panel underneath the horizontal cover.
Indeed, this image would turn up quite close to the goal of Tesla, but there would be many public iterations in between - and presumably there have been more private iterations. Not even these Design Studio images were not quite final yet, for example the sides of the trunk are wrong.
The way Tesla basically builds their cars is, at the start of every quarter they make cars for destinations far away from the factory (e.g. Europe) and towards the end of every quarter progressively turn to making cars for destinations nearer the factory, to allow for transit-time and delivery within that same quarter. This matter in the 5-seater story, because cars destined for e.g. Europe will have been manufactured earlier than some U.S. cars being delivered, showing us some of the design iterations.
The first cars five-seaters we saw in the U.S. had been stripped from any extra five-seater panels and left the rear rather exposed. They also showed how the side panels of the trunk have changed from the Design Studio images, there are no longer left any top shelf "rails" on the sides of the trunk that earlier 6/7 seater Model Xs had. Around this time the second row floor was re-designed a little too (from VIN F022382 forwards). These cars had the usual 6/7 seater rear panel cover the rear of the trunk, though, with the pull-up handle.
Here is one image of a car picked up on December 30th, 2016:
But, while this is not the first time the five seater was seen in photographic form, my estimate is that the earliest hints of the early five seater trunk design may have come from Norway:
Note how in this image there are two things: a smaller rearward panel, that covers the rear well, shorter from the sides than usual rear panel used in 6/7 seaters to cover either upper or lower level of the rear well. But this image also shows what I believe could be the earliest seen iteration of the vertical panel behind the second row, one that does not extend to the sides, but leaves gaps towards the sides. Note how this early car from Norway also had two cargo-liner hooks on the floor of the storage comparment. These would come and go in future cars.
The next iteration that was seen both in video form and in some other cars being delivered in the U.S., was the storage compartment cover resting on the side plastics, without the vertical cover underneath. This storage compartment cover did not have any handle or loop to lift it up from, just a small recession in the place where eventually a leather strap would appear. Note also that the 6/7 seater rear panel and the new 5-seater forward panel in the trunk show slightly different shades of grey. Many of these cars still had those cargo hooks on the storage compartment floor.
It was obvious by now that this was the final design and any cars delivered in this incomplete configuration were probably done so by mistake. The Service Centers were supposed to remove any factory installed components due to quality issues and indeed they were also re-installing the second row reclining handles/setup in some of these cars at the Service Centers.
I started the Speculation: Model X five seater is missing a panel to hide seat bottoms? thread on December 20th, 2016 to speculate on the appearance of the vertical support panel for the storage compartment and first images of this panel appeared on December 25th, this time without any cargo hooks on the storage compartment floor:
Here the difference of the new rail/shelfless side panels could also be witnessed:
After this started a rather wild period of five-seater deliveries, many without either of the storage compartment panel (horizontal or vertical), some without cargo hooks on the floors, some with. Some had just the top storage compartment panel - rather dangerous setup considering it would sit on the side panels without any structural support underneath.
In one case, Tesla even attempted to install an early Model X trunk top cover to a 5-seater with no place for it, since the 5-seater got the re-designed trunk walls and, also, they tried to apply it to the floor:
Obviously the cars from the factory were coming to Service Centers either with subpar parts to be removed or entirely without parts in these areas. Instruction and training also seems to have been insufficient. Customers were getting very little to no info on when remedies would appear, only that they eventually would.
In the odd chance that your car came with the vertical support panel, the place where the Service Center would install it seemed rather random. Some were placed a little more forward or backwards than others and the most glaring mistake was in @SMS16 's car, the vertical support installed on the rear seat floor behind the second row, where it basically supports nothing. This car was delivered in February, 2017:
For another sign of the cars that were being built around the new year 2017, we have a message from @krouebi who took deliver on March 31st in Luxemburg. This car still had the 6/7 seater rear panel, with the pull-up handle, but it also got a leather loop featuring storage compartment panel. It must have been built around the same time, possibly even earlier than @SMS16 's car, shipping from the factory with the 6/7 seater rear panel, but was delivered much later, so its storage compartment panels have been later additions at the Service Center.
The first signs of the final design evolution (so far) - since European deliveries at this time would by design of the logistics show earlier builds - would come from the U.S. a few days earlier: March 26th, when member @TechVP posted a gallery of images from their new five-seater. With the car having both the front and rear panel with a leather loop, it seems likely the car actually came that way from the factory itself and thus may be one of the first cars delivered without Service Center intervention on this - though this is speculation, of course.
Interestingly, this latest design no longer features the cargo hooks on the storage compartment floor:
Tesla has since fixed their Design Studio imagery to show these panels and the correct side panels for the trunk, so I think this is the final design for now:
I decided to do a short history to document the evolultion of the Model X 5-seater trunk. As we know the 5-seater finally started deliveries in late Q4/2016 after a delay of 6 or 12 months depending on your math. The 5-seater trunk introduced a new "storage compartment" in the area where the third row seat bottoms reside in the 6/7-seater. Initially this area was simply left empty, but the design calls for panels to cover this area. This is where our story starts.
When we first saw our Model X 5-seater, it was through a hasty Photoshop in Tesla's Design Studio, where this storage compartment cover behind the second row was first seen in early November, 2016. There are all sorts of mistakes in this image, for example it shows the third row air vents (removed in the five seater) and brightening the image up shows other areas simply deleted from 6/7 seater imagery.
But there is a thing of note here that could speak of design evolution, not just Photoshopping skills on the Design Studio team, the storage compartment cover is without any kind of mechanism to lift it. Also, the storage compartment cover is not hugging the sides on the curving walls near the falcon wings, but is straight. Some of this is just the quality of the Photoshop edit, but some will matter in a moment.
Second time we saw the render of the five-seater was quickly afterwards, after a different resolution render was found in the Design Studio (below, in lightened up form). You can note that in some ways this design looks rather nothing like the final, though, as there are weird protrusions/extensions coming out of the second row, but it was a much more production quality image, removing the third row air vent for example. And for the first time it shows the storage compartment, a leather loop on the horizontal storage compartment cover and a new vertical panel underneath the horizontal cover.
Indeed, this image would turn up quite close to the goal of Tesla, but there would be many public iterations in between - and presumably there have been more private iterations. Not even these Design Studio images were not quite final yet, for example the sides of the trunk are wrong.
The way Tesla basically builds their cars is, at the start of every quarter they make cars for destinations far away from the factory (e.g. Europe) and towards the end of every quarter progressively turn to making cars for destinations nearer the factory, to allow for transit-time and delivery within that same quarter. This matter in the 5-seater story, because cars destined for e.g. Europe will have been manufactured earlier than some U.S. cars being delivered, showing us some of the design iterations.
The first cars five-seaters we saw in the U.S. had been stripped from any extra five-seater panels and left the rear rather exposed. They also showed how the side panels of the trunk have changed from the Design Studio images, there are no longer left any top shelf "rails" on the sides of the trunk that earlier 6/7 seater Model Xs had. Around this time the second row floor was re-designed a little too (from VIN F022382 forwards). These cars had the usual 6/7 seater rear panel cover the rear of the trunk, though, with the pull-up handle.
Here is one image of a car picked up on December 30th, 2016:
But, while this is not the first time the five seater was seen in photographic form, my estimate is that the earliest hints of the early five seater trunk design may have come from Norway:
Note how in this image there are two things: a smaller rearward panel, that covers the rear well, shorter from the sides than usual rear panel used in 6/7 seaters to cover either upper or lower level of the rear well. But this image also shows what I believe could be the earliest seen iteration of the vertical panel behind the second row, one that does not extend to the sides, but leaves gaps towards the sides. Note how this early car from Norway also had two cargo-liner hooks on the floor of the storage comparment. These would come and go in future cars.
The next iteration that was seen both in video form and in some other cars being delivered in the U.S., was the storage compartment cover resting on the side plastics, without the vertical cover underneath. This storage compartment cover did not have any handle or loop to lift it up from, just a small recession in the place where eventually a leather strap would appear. Note also that the 6/7 seater rear panel and the new 5-seater forward panel in the trunk show slightly different shades of grey. Many of these cars still had those cargo hooks on the storage compartment floor.
It was obvious by now that this was the final design and any cars delivered in this incomplete configuration were probably done so by mistake. The Service Centers were supposed to remove any factory installed components due to quality issues and indeed they were also re-installing the second row reclining handles/setup in some of these cars at the Service Centers.
I started the Speculation: Model X five seater is missing a panel to hide seat bottoms? thread on December 20th, 2016 to speculate on the appearance of the vertical support panel for the storage compartment and first images of this panel appeared on December 25th, this time without any cargo hooks on the storage compartment floor:
Here the difference of the new rail/shelfless side panels could also be witnessed:
After this started a rather wild period of five-seater deliveries, many without either of the storage compartment panel (horizontal or vertical), some without cargo hooks on the floors, some with. Some had just the top storage compartment panel - rather dangerous setup considering it would sit on the side panels without any structural support underneath.
In one case, Tesla even attempted to install an early Model X trunk top cover to a 5-seater with no place for it, since the 5-seater got the re-designed trunk walls and, also, they tried to apply it to the floor:
Obviously the cars from the factory were coming to Service Centers either with subpar parts to be removed or entirely without parts in these areas. Instruction and training also seems to have been insufficient. Customers were getting very little to no info on when remedies would appear, only that they eventually would.
In the odd chance that your car came with the vertical support panel, the place where the Service Center would install it seemed rather random. Some were placed a little more forward or backwards than others and the most glaring mistake was in @SMS16 's car, the vertical support installed on the rear seat floor behind the second row, where it basically supports nothing. This car was delivered in February, 2017:
For another sign of the cars that were being built around the new year 2017, we have a message from @krouebi who took deliver on March 31st in Luxemburg. This car still had the 6/7 seater rear panel, with the pull-up handle, but it also got a leather loop featuring storage compartment panel. It must have been built around the same time, possibly even earlier than @SMS16 's car, shipping from the factory with the 6/7 seater rear panel, but was delivered much later, so its storage compartment panels have been later additions at the Service Center.
The first signs of the final design evolution (so far) - since European deliveries at this time would by design of the logistics show earlier builds - would come from the U.S. a few days earlier: March 26th, when member @TechVP posted a gallery of images from their new five-seater. With the car having both the front and rear panel with a leather loop, it seems likely the car actually came that way from the factory itself and thus may be one of the first cars delivered without Service Center intervention on this - though this is speculation, of course.
Interestingly, this latest design no longer features the cargo hooks on the storage compartment floor:
Tesla has since fixed their Design Studio imagery to show these panels and the correct side panels for the trunk, so I think this is the final design for now:
