Reservations are being taken, with production scheduled to start in late 2013.

Model X, which, Reuters points out, resembles a taller version of Tesla's current offering, the Model S sedan, can bolt from 0 to 60 mph in a whiplash-inducing 4.4 seconds. (Many people who test-drove the company's electric sports car, the $100,000-plus Tesla Roadster, seemed startled by that vehicle's quick acceleration.)

The Model S, which sells for almost $60,000, is scheduled to begin rolling off the production line in July. The company hopes to deliver 20,000 of the cars by 2013. Model X will go for roughly the same price, with a production goal of 10,000 to 15,000 vehicles, all of which will have dual-motor all-wheel drive.

Tesla, which went public in 2010, has yet to earn a profit, but its work in electric-drive technology has been licensed to competitors such as Toyota (NYSE:TM), whose electric RAV4 crossover SUV uses Tesla's electric-drive system. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Tesla has attracted investments from a number of venture-capital firms and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and also won a $465 million loan guarantee in 2009 from the U.S. Department of Energy.