Elon Musk, New York Times engage in war of words over Tesla Model S range

[wtmusic]

"The New York Times recently sent John Broder out in a Model S between the two new Superchargers on the east coast, located in Newark, DE and Milford, CT. Since, as Broder notes, the stations are "some 200 miles apart" the 85-kWh battery in the Model S should be able to make the drive. The EPA rates this model at 265 miles, after all. Heck, even the 60-kWh mid-range model has a 208-mile range. The trick, as we all know, is that your mileage may vary.

Following a 49-minute visit to the Supercharger in Delaware for a full charge (well, at least seeing a screen that read "charge complete&quot , Broder kept on driving, but discovered that, after 68 miles of driving, he had lost 85 miles of estimated range. He shifted over to energy conservation mode (driving slow, turning off the cabin heat, etc.).

The report caused TSLA to drop 2.5 percent to $38.27 (it has since regained some ground and sits at $38.42) and got a response from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted that, 'NYTimes article about Tesla range in cold is fake. Vehicle logs tell true story that he didn't actually charge to max & took a long detour.'"

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/02/11/nyts-tesla-model-s-trouble-report-is-fake-says-elon-musk/

[rightsideout]

1. Another "anti-EV" article

I have a friend, in our electric car club, who has a new Tesla Model S and hasn't had this range problem. Two weeks ago he got over 200 miles on one trip driving back and forth through VA, DC and MD, in January.

If you have a lead foot and gun the thing and take a maze like route to your destination that's going to eat into your range just like a gas car.

I have a feeling these reporters, who have written anti-EV articles or skeptical articles in the past go into these test drives with a "hope a failure" to write about, to sell their story, and in the process help it along by abusing the car and taking circuitous routes that eat into the range.

We'll have to see what the data logs say.

[wtmusic]

2. NYT prides itself on accuracy, and rarely issues a retraction

Could be great PR, if that's the end result.

[joshcryer]

3. Elon Musk is going all out.

Going to have other journalists run the car, is retweeting Model S owners' own experience, etc. I don't see a retraction from the NYT though but maybe an "agree to disagree" type thing.

[wtmusic]

4. Here's some followup.

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/the-charges-are-flying-over-a-test-of-teslas-charging-network/?ref=johnmbroder