Clueless NYT reporter manages to get stranded in Model S

I liked Chelsea Sexton's views above...

I'd like to know if the recent Tesla data dump changes her position.

 

What we have here is a journalist on a mission. Endowed with good writing skills and avoiding sensible driving behavior, he accomplishes his clear goal. Let's show that Tesla Motors has failed to make an hermetically idiot-proof car.

The first part that stunned me, was driving off with only 32 miles of range reported. If that was an ICE car, including a Prius, that is the same as driving off with the gas gauge needle jammed on empty and the "FILL UP NOW" lights and alarms going off. Is that really a Model S fault?

The second part that stunned me was calling Tesla and asking if he could do something stupid. How does the Tesla employee on the other end give any acceptable answer? Does he give good advice or answer the question asked? Obviously a good journalist knows how to state the question so the answer can only be one or the other. Reading the article makes it clear that a lot of the reporters answers are hedged quite carefully.

 

I think he came up with enough data. In fact the a Times asked for an open source version of all the data. The call center records all calls also. Broder's response is weak. he will leave the paper soon. Yahoo says the winner is Elon.
Tesla rebuts Times story with secret data trail from test drive | Motoramic - Yahoo! Autos

 

Here is more on the topic from Chelsea Sexton, an EV-advocate.
Apparently a short 4-min interview on NPR Marketplace today:

Who'd win in a fight? Tesla or the New York Times? | Marketplace.org

I find her level-headed, but one write-in commenter on the link above feels she has a bias against Tesla. She says she loves Tesla's in the audio clip. She just feels the EV industry needs to be careful about over-selling EV, in this case for long trips.

She accuses the public of a "double standard": expecting EV's to be equal in all respects to regular cars, with no shortcomings. But, for example, iPhones are not equal to land phone lines in all respects, there are some disadvantages to iPhones (Li batts need to be charged); so why should the public expect EV to be equal regular cars in all respects? Well, it's a little bit of a weak analogy for me, but she feels it is helpful.

 

Not according to the NYT Public Editor.

Conflicting Assertions Over an Electric Car Test Drive | The Public Editor - NYTimes.com

 

CNN just did the same test as NYT.
Test drive: DC to Boston in a Tesla Model S - Feb. 15, 2013
*yawn* that was a pretty boring read. Nothing happened. I wonder what can be done to spice up the review?

 

hm, i looked for articles on Tesla battery, look what I found.
Owner had a battery pricked due to car not being charged for 2 months and Musk attacked him for trying to get money out of them

It seems that this is the way Musk operates. If they did not tell him that battery WILL brick if you dont recharge it, they need to cover the replacement. What happens when 20,000 a year owners start doing "stupid" things with their cars?

Who Is Trying To Smear The Tesla Battery Problem Whistleblower?

 

well first of all, that 100% charge is special mode that degrades the battery and has to be turned on specifically... it also takes 30 minutes longer.

If charging extra 4 gallons would take 30 minutes, maybe we would also work like Broder did.

 

For spinnaker87's EV fail non-sense from Nissan Passes 50,000 LEAFs Sold Worldwide

That's quite a bit considering the car first went on sale ~December 2010. In Japan, they apparently have a lot more charging infrastructure and a LOT more
CHAdeMO Association DC fast chargers.

And remember, the Leaf's EPA rated range is only 73 miles vs. the 265 miles of the 85 kwh Model S.

 

Your positions would be much stronger if you posted information that was accurate.
The 100% charge is an option. And frequent use of it can degrade the battery faster, just as frequently driving off in an old fashioned ICE in freezing temps without letting the car warm up can be bad for it.
Occasional use will have minimal effect.
And the difference between a standard and range charge will charge on a supercharger in less than 10 minutes, not 30.

Oh, here is CNN's DC to Boston trip. I know, much less exciting but it is what it is. Test drive: DC to Boston in a Tesla Model S - Feb. 15, 2013

 

CNN made the same trip and it was flawless.

CNNMoney | Business, financial and personal finance news.

 

If true, does anybody believe he would have made the same decision in a gas car?

 

No, we won't. I dare say no one would unless they are a complete moron. It is in "complete violation of common sense" to drive further than the range you have, gasoline or electricity. If I can't wait however long it takes to charge 61 miles, I don't go on the trip, period!

If I barely make it to the first supercharger with cold feet and white knuckles, I will charge up to 100% at the next one.

"I stopped at 72 percent because I had replenished more than enough energy for the miles I intended to drive the next day"

If the car nearly didnt make it to the first supercharger, only a moron or someone with an agenda would trust the range the second time.

 

I'm sure he would if he wanted to write a piece about it running out of gas

IMHO Musk went off, and made it a bigger story than it would have been. This is worse than just letting the story sit. Now its been all through the media and is being read by a much larger audience. The NYT looks bad, but its driven more traffic to their web sight, and Broder is more famous than he has ever been. I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Kelly or some of the other big oil anti EV rich guys start offering him money to write for them.

I think instead of calling him a lier and a fake, they could have waited and put out the CNN test drive and some facts. They should have called him a drama queen or other more appropriate names that would fit.

1) He only put in a 75% charge at the super charger station. Why would he do that if he didn't want to run out of power?

2) He only charged to 32 miles for a 61 mile trip. He almost made it but if you drive on empty in any car you are going to run out of fuel.

3) He drove at speeds up to 80mph and had the heat up to 74 on the trip where the battery got low. Tesla told him that those things will use more power but he did them anyway. Ofcourse he used more fuel than the EPA. Still if the Battery was charged to 100% instead of 90% he could of done thee things with plenty of power to spare. Tesla should have explicitly told him to charge all the way up. It was a PR blunder to not be exploit with a guy like Broder.

I think Broder should be given the benefit of the doubt on driving in circles looking for the charger. That might happen even if he is lieing now. The tow seemed to happen as he said it. Tesla I guess needs to tell people to leave their car on when its out of juice waiting for a tow.

 

In Broder's explanation he said he didn't plug-in because he wanted to test the super charger network. I'm sure if there was no place to plug in, he would have stated that instead. He did not plug-in on purpose, because he wanted to see what would happen. Again if he had fully charged the car instead of stopping early at the super charger, he would have had enough fuel, but legitimately wrote about a big drop at night. He said this is the item people asked him about, before Tesla put out the logs. Now I'm sure the questions are why would you leave the super charger with a low charge after you barely made it. Why would you leave on a 61 mile trip with electricity for 32 miles? Why did you go 80 mph and then act as if it was bad the car used some extra fuel? These are all better questions.