Clueless NYT reporter manages to get stranded in Model S

Also this article says the reporter John Broder has a history if bashing the EV industry. He is not objective.
ELON MUSK: 'I Guess We Were Pretty Dumb To Agree To An Article By This Guy'

 

You keep saying the same thing over and over. Obviously the BEV is not going to be 10% of all car sales in 2 years, but look where it has come in 10 years. What if they have a battery breakthrough in a few years, range goes up, cost and charging times go down and more garages have EVSE equipment installed. There are one heck of a lot of garages out there in the world and masses of people drive less than 100 miles per day. I rarely drive over 100 miles per day, maybe 3 or 4 times a year.

 

I don't think Tesla is handling this right. We have another negative editorial in this new anti - plug-in meme
Charles Lane: Obama’s electric car mistake - The Washington Post

What's interesting is it takes the anti-Obama story tried in the presidential campaign, and then adds the negative reuters story, and this NYT piece.

That seemed to be the failed campaign talking.

Adding the real problem with Musk's reply to the story. Those that want to end BEVs will use price and convenience even if it ain't so to rally against them. Then adds some of the reuters garbage.

Add it all up and it seems like the continuation of a concerted campaign to kill plug-ins before people can decide they like them.

 

Perhaps the worst part of Ecology is that it became Political. This should never be a Liberal cause or a Consertative enemy. It should just be people making the planet safer from the ills of polution.

 

I've heard that it can take a lot longer to range charge than a regular charge. Also heard that charging rate slows down quite a bit as you near the end of the charge, for example, the last 10% of the range.

We need to copy the link to Chads writeup about EV long range driving. Must read. It's on Tesla Motors Club - Enthusiasts & Owners Forum > Model S > Batteries and Charging

 

As usual, the truth is someplace place between the extremes. Someplace between EVangelist proselytizing and the NYT reporters "hit piece".

 

I think this is a must read -

How to plan a road trip - how long will it take?

Good writeup on EV , Tesla road tripping | PriusChat

One very interesting thing is his actual miles driven are almost always less than the rated miles used. i.e. 100 miles driven, 137 miles used on range gauge. See the charts lower in article.

 

If the NY Times is fair and unbiased perhaps they should reevaluate the car and follow the manufacturer guidelines. Elon was man enough to say they are continuing to build out the Super Charging stations on the East Coast and this will provide more options.

Now we have the Political Opinion on the Washington Post saying it is a Obama problem. This has just more insane.

Sure lets continue to dump man made CO2 into the atmosphere and kill the planet. So when the planet is as dirty as Beijing will the Wing Nuts say we won? We killed the planet.

 

Right so before you run out of Juice you go on the screen and look for a charging station and get a partcial or full charge. Common Sense. But the NY Times guy could have charged the car and continued on his merry way and said I had to stop and get Juice. But he rather run it to zero and have the car towed take a bunch of Pictures and create a media frenzy. That is journalism dealt from the bottom of the deck. That is why I'm ticked off. I get the early adopter bleeding edge. This guy had an AX to grind. What a shame. He should be fired for ethics violations.

 

What's good for EV's is good for the nation, less oil use, less oil war, less pollution, less trade deficit.

That right wing talking heads and EV phobic writers bash EV's is along the lines of dog bites man.

 

Its strange, tesla should be a company that democrats and republicans both like. An small company takes on the big guys and looks like the company should be successful. Its an American story, of innovation and technology that helps fight imports - both cars and oil. It lowers pollution too.

I did find this new forbes story, that does not seem biased at least to me but is rather negative about some aspects of the tesla S. This is not like the hit piece editorial in the WP.
Fake Or Not, New York Times' Tesla Review Speaks Truth About Electric Cars - Forbes

I do think that Broder many have done a little worse than that though, in the comments we can see the link to broader's previous story.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/sunday-review/the-electric-car-unplugged.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

He isn't down right hostile, but is quite negative and does want to stir up controversy.

 

That I don't agree with. The article must stand on its own as is. We can't have every manufacturer get a do-over because something went wrong with the test. It's like overruling the lousy call by replacement NFL referees. As cliche as it sounds, its a slippery slope.

At least everyone knows not to let this guy test drive an EV. He is now blacklisted like Top Gear.

 

I disagree the guy did not drive the car properly. It was evident he was interested in a side show and not a proper evaluation.

 

100% Correct ! I'm sure this NY Times stiff is a Shill for the Oil Companies.

 

Some reporters will stand by and photograph their mothers being raped if it will get them published. Some will even go so far as to give a rapist a ride to their mother's house. In those cases, I do think it is the mother's fault.

 

It's been quite a while since I've driven on a long trip, like from SF area to LA, but as I recall, I usually drive about as far as I can stand (like 2 1/2 hours for example), then get out of the car at some rest stop for maybe, ah, 20 minutes, then get back on the road.

Stopping for an hour or more doesn't seem too inviting when trying to get to point B. But, I'm not a Model S driver, so what do i really know?

I recommend Chads writeup about EV road tripping. Check out the figures:

Level 2 charging: 13:20 total trip time (6:40 charging), also 11:59 ttt, (6:44 charging)
Supercharging : 9:24 total trip time (2:40 charging)

 

I can't say that we should not have over ruled that horrible call on the packer game. It did change who had home field.... and was wrong to everyone.

On the other hand, I don't think the NYT story would be that bad for tesla if they handled it right. Going after the times and reporter might get the MSM after them, and it can get pretty ugly. I don't think many now think the NYT is completely unbiased;-) This was after all a car review not a hot news story. A correction of what the driver did wrong and a reinteration that closer spaced quick chargers are coming to the east coast would have buried the story. Now its getting legs.

But the fall out maybe that the next reviewer gets more harsh.

 

Maybe Top Gear will release a statement about the NYT test!
The Charges Are Flying Over a Test of Tesla's Charging Network - NYTimes.com

 

This is exactly why the EVER was created. Seriously I made the trip SF-Southern California about 40 times. I've driven there and back maybe 3 times. Why? Flying is just so much more convenient. There are those that do want to road trip many times a year in there own car (1), only have one car (2), and its a BEV(3). For these people they need to prepare to wait for the car to charge. I do think that there are enough people to sell 200,000 BEVs a year to that do not have all 3 combined features though IMHO this is a limiting factor on BEVs killing phevs though.

 

Haven't had a chance to read all the coverage but someone else posted this on another board.
Followup: Tesla Model S Versus New York Times