Tesla CEO +Elon Musk has delivered his promised response to Broder's recent report where the Times writer claimed the Model S fell short of its range estimates and left him stranded and it looks really bad for the writer.
Assuming the data accurately reflects what actually happened, Broder clearly fudged his story in many ways. As with Mike Daisey and his debunked story about Apple manufacturing, a writer has apparently taken major liberties with the truth and ruined what could have been a very good and informative story.
Tesla deserves a great deal of credit for creating a remarkable purpose built electric vehicle that in many ways is among the most technologically advanced in the world. What will almost certainly get lost in this mess is that drivers considering electric vehicles in the near term still need to be aware of some major things that are very different from ICE-powered vehicles.
The spacing of the first batch of Tesla Supercharger stations works only with the longest-range version of the Model S. Customers that opt for the 40 or 60 kWh battery versions will still need to make plans to find charging stations along the way if they want to take a road trip and the same applies to drivers of all the other battery electric vehicles that have shorter ranges.
All vehicles take an efficiency hit when it gets cold, but battery powered vehicles are hit harder because they don't have a source of waste heat to take care of from the engine. If you live somewhere that gets winters, make sure you take that into account when considering whether an EV will work for your commute.
I'm also still strongly opposed to Tesla's decision to use a proprietary charging connector instead of the industry standard J1772 connector. That means drivers of other EVs will have to use adapters if they want to take advantage of the SuperCharger stations.
Finally, all reviewers from now on should assume that they are being logged. Don't make up bullshit stories.
A Most Peculiar Test Drive | Blog | Tesla Motors
You may have heard recently about an article written by John Broder from The New York Times that makes numerous claims about the performance of the Model S. We are upset by this article because it doe…
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Good to see you are swayed by reason, Sam. I'm interested to see the NYT's response.
That's about the most damning evidence he could have posted. I wonder if +The New York Times will actually share the information as promised.
Isn't it disappointing? You would expect quality journalism not only from NYT but also a BBC series like Top Gear. Even so +Top Gear is an entertainment program you still would expect that the BBC ensures quality in the tests. Otherwise I would expect a permanent on screen message like "entertainment program, test results are not real and not intended to apply to the cars in real life".
It seems like the traditional media is under so much pressure that even cheap tricks are in order now. We can only guess how many other stuff is faked where the victim does not have the power or data to proof otherwise. +Tesla Motors be glad you had the data.