Testing the Tesla Model X - in pictures

The Tesla Model X. All photos: Victor Besa / The National

The regenerative braking, which can be set to standard or low, has the triple effect that when you ease off the accelerator, it slows the car automatically while extending the range (which can be up to 500 kilometres in total) and brake life.

The all-wheel-drive X has other suitably boastful feathers in its cap, including its panoramic windscreen, which curves up into its roof to create something of an observatory to the outside world, also opening up the vistas for rear-seat passengers. It is, Tesla says, the biggest windscreen of its type in production.

The battery’s positioning, beneath the X’s floor, gives 50:50 weight distribution that Tesla claims makes it incredibly stable and almost immune to rollovers. Should the worst happen, though, crash tests have shown that the X will be one of the safest vehicles in its category, with collision avoidance and automatic emergency braking.

With the X’s added elements from its more-futuristic, full-aluminium design (dramatic falcon-wing doors and all) through to its capacity to carry seven full-sized adults, it’s arguably an even more capable car than the S.

Access to the rear seating is painless thanks to those unfurling falcon-wing doors, which can be automatically operated via the car’s Tesla-shaped key fob.

Tesla announced its launch in the UAE earlier this week, with orders currently being taken for its Model S and Model X. The National took a test drive in the Tesla Model X, which claims to be the world’s fastest SUV, from Dubai Mall to The Last Exit at Jebel Ali, which is one of two Tesla Supercharger stations currently operational in the Emirates.