Posted on 02/16/2013 10:33:20 AM PST by Vince Ferrer
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 does not factually represent Tesla technology, which is designed and tested to operate well in both hot and cold climates. Indeed, our highest per capita sales are in Norway, where customers drive our cars during Arctic winters in permanent midnight, and in Switzerland, high among the snowy Alps. About half of all Tesla Roadster and Model S customers drive in temperatures well below freezing in winter. While no car is perfect, after extremely thorough testing, the Model S was declared to be the best new car in the world by the most discerning authorities in the automotive industry.
To date, hundreds of journalists have test driven the Model S in every scenario you can imagine. The car has been driven through Death Valley (the hottest place on Earth) in the middle of summer and on a track of pure ice in a Minnesota winter. It has traveled over 600 miles in a day from the snowcapped peaks of Tahoe to Los Angeles, which made the very first use of the Supercharger network, and moreover by no lesser person than another reporter from The New York Times. Yet, somehow John Broder “discovered” a problem and was unavoidably left stranded on the road. Or was he?
After a negative experience several years ago with Top Gear, a popular automotive show, where they pretended that our car ran out of energy and had to be pushed back to the garage, we always carefully data log media drives. While the vast majority of journalists are honest, some believe the facts shouldn’t get in the way of a salacious story. In the case of Top Gear, they had literally written the script before they even received the car (we happened to find a copy of the script on a table while the car was being “tested”). Our car never even had a chance.
The logs show again that our Model S never had a chance with John Broder. In the case with Top Gear, their legal defense was that they never actually said it broke down, they just implied that it could and then filmed themselves pushing what viewers did not realize was a perfectly functional car. In Mr. Broder’s case, he simply did not accurately capture what happened and worked very hard to force our car to stop running.
Here is a summary of the key facts:
When Tesla first approached The New York Times about doing this story, it was supposed to be focused on future advancements in our Supercharger technology. There was no need to write a story about existing Superchargers on the East Coast, as that had already been done by Consumer Reports with no problems! We assumed that the reporter would be fair and impartial, as has been our experience with The New York Times, an organization that prides itself on journalistic integrity. As a result, we did not think to read his past articles and were unaware of his outright disdain for electric cars. We were played for a fool and as a result, let down the cause of electric vehicles. For that, I am deeply sorry.
When I first heard about what could at best be described as irregularities in Broder’s behavior during the test drive, I called to apologize for any inconvenience that he may have suffered and sought to put my concerns to rest, hoping that he had simply made honest mistakes. That was not the case.
In his own words in an article published last year, this is how Broder felt about electric cars before even seeing the Model S:
"Yet the state of the electric car is dismal, the victim of hyped expectations, technological flops, high costs and a hostile political climate.”
When the facts didn’t suit his opinion, he simply changed the facts. Our request of The New York Times is simple and fair: please investigate this article and determine the truth. You are a news organization where that principle is of paramount importance and what is at stake for sustainable transport is simply too important to the world to ignore.
Probably to push the Volt. But Obama has our money on both so you ask a good question.
How does it handle in a Houston year which includes flood water and temperatures over 100 degrees daily throughout the summer (including sitting for 8 hours in a hot parking lot, then making a one hour traffic jam commute ride home)?
Houston's "light rail" can't run in 3-inches of rainfall.
Desperation to finally get moving again? Who in their right mind could relish multiple one-hour-stops to travel a mere few hundred miles, which could easily be done on one single tank filling of liquid fuel?
Clarkson of criticized Top Gear drove a heavy BMW A8 4-litre-V8 turbo diesel sedan from London to Edinburgh -and back!- on a single tank of fuel! 800 miles!
Well, at least Mr. Tesla has confirmed in his own writing that his cars are nothing else but toys for the idle rich (not that there's anything wrong, per se, with toys or the idle rich). Those who can afford to have Jeeves follow them in a real car to drive when the juice runs out...
Nothing like a wrap around windshield.
Elon Musk is an incredible salesman.
My buddy’s daughter put down 5 grand deposit on one of their new SUVs that won’t even be built until 2014, and the closest dealer is 3 hours away.
Probably could use a chop and channel too. ;-)
Uh, maybe because he needed to be someplace and couldn't afford another two hours of charging time? Maybe because there were others waiting in line for the only charger available for miles? Maybe because young urban punks were threatening those waiting for a charge?
When was the last time it took you two hours to pour 20 gallons of liquid fuel into your tank?
Something about Musk doesn’t smell right.
I’m thinking I could build a 10hp electric Suburban/Econoline full of nearly spent/rejuvenated Pb-acid batteries to take my dog and me the 1 mile over and 1 mile back from the park for our morning jaunts. It’d be fun - coasting is just about as good as regenerative braking, if you have the time.
Here’s a story about Musk and Tesla’s rebuttal not being what they claim it is:
and here’s Broder’s own response to Musk’s spin:
Given that my TDIs only hold ~16 gal, it'd take a couple of hours to drop a full tank low enough to install the remaining 4 gallons.
LOL. You’re right...ergo, gas cars have no refueling advantage when trying to squeeze 20 gallons into a 16 gallon tank.
What the NYT story shows is what most people already thought. If you go on a long trip in a electric car it must be a structured trip. Fully charge the car at each station. Don’t deviate from the route. And you should not have any problems.
What Broder did was drive the car like a normal person would. Not fully charging to save time if he thought he could make his next destination. Then underestimating the range the car could go because of cold weather driving. This is not something Tesla should flip out over. It is real life driving.
The Tesla is a $100+k toy being marketed as a status symbol. Nobody is, or ever will be, using this as an everyday driver. Probably has inadequate air conditioning for warm climates.
Well in this case, based on Broder’s behavior, they should have put a data search on his financial records as it was clear Broder was lying and likely being paid off to fabricate these lies.
If you are driving out west (in the US or Canada) off the Interstate system, it's still recommenced to not leave a town with an open gas station at night without filling up.
How stupid were these people not to realize the test car was totally monitored against fraud.
BTW, there are lot of people all over the place who have a financial stake here and have no desire to see Tesla succeed.
They're going to lose big.
Actually the Tesla S is 52k with a 7.5k taxpayer funded credit.
I’m not saying it’s a good deal....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.