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. 

The reality is that over the past 40 years, the data proves them wrong. When the minimum wage has gone up, it has been followed by falling unemployment. As people earn more money at the bottom of the wage scale, they actually spend it, thus driving up demand and creating jobs. Giving those that already have money even more has never been shown to stimulate the economy. 

Since the latest episode won't be airing here in the US for another three weeks I won't spoil it for you but Jezza described the 662 hp supercharged V8 thusly: "the power is intoxicating, you never get bored with that."

While Clarkson made the 800 mile run solo in the GT500, Hammond and May relaxed on board a high-speed train.  

BTW, it's nice to see that +BBC America has now reduced the delay in airing new episodes of Top Gear to just three weeks. The question is why can't they just air it the same day?

While Tesla is doing some interesting stuff with its SuperCharger 480V charging stations, they are going to need to be closer together. The reality is that even when Model S production gets up to full speed, the smaller battery version with real world range of 120-140 miles is likely to represent the bulk of sales.

As John Broder of the New York Times learned even the mega battery version struggles to make 200 miles when the weather is anything less than California ideal. These charging stations would also be much more useful to a wider range of drivers if Tesla hadn't opted for a proprietary charging connector. As it stands only Tesla drivers can use these stations. 

She started training with the Ann Arbor Derby Dimes http://annarborrollerderby.com/ and after months of learning the skills of the sport, she passed the skills test a couple of weeks ago. This morning we are going to see her for the first time in a friends and family scrimmage. I'll have a bunch of photos later on this afternoon. In the meantime check out this great video that explains the basic rules of the game.