Clueless NYT reporter manages to get stranded in Model S

Lots of discussion on this at NYT article: Stalled on the EV Highway.

 

Why do I feel the journalist who got stranded may have planned it? If the journalist had a perfect drive the article would not receive as much attention as one going "see! EV cars won't do it!"

Simple planning could have helped them avoid the issue.

 

In fairness to the reporter, Tesla planed out the route.

In fairness to Tesla, the reporter did not do his journalistic due diligence, any 110V outlet would work in an emergency, any truck stop would have a 240V outlet to use. The nitwit reporter spends overnight and doesn't put the car on a easily available 110V outlet which would have provided the 50 miles of comfortable, heat on, highway speed travel that the reporter claims ruined the drive.

It would have not made for as dramatic a story as the reporter driving past charging outlet vs. charging outlet at creeper speeds with the heat off and running the battery down but then the reporter's job is write stories to get attention not use common sense and the instruction manual.

The same range issue of cars stated range on its computer display dropping faster in cold weather will happen with a gas engine.

 

Yeah, I think the reporter definitely had a poor level of knowledge about how EVs work. However, if everything reported is true, I also find fault with Tesla.
When he was told to precondition the battery after his overnight of being unplugged, I am guessing his conversation happened one of two ways:

A) Rep: Sir, did you have the car plugged in overnight as suggested?
Reporter; Umm, why Yes, of course I did.
Rep: OK, in that case, just turn the car on and run the heater for about a half hour.

Or B). The rep made the error of assuming the car was plugged in, and told him to run the heater.

I am also guessing when the reporter said the rep told him to turn off the cruise control, what he was actually told was to turn off the climate control and use the seat heaters if necessary.

It also appears the reporter didn't use the range mode when charging.

All this being said, when making a car targeted at the mass adoption, there will be clueless people. Hopefully Tesla will take lessons from this and :
install more superchargers in colder climates,
Educate new drivers more thoroughly (I think they do a pretty good job, but they need to extend this to reporters)

I also hope the reporter will take up the offer from a Tesla owner to take him on the same route to show him how easy it is.

 

what a douchebag.

 

anything to get published.

 

seems to me that in the future when there maybe 5,000-10,000-20,000 electric vehicles trying to find a charging spot that the wait times will not make it worth buying electric. now throw in the cold conditions and it's a recipe for disaster

 

Hummm, combination microbrewer and charging station parking lot . . . sounds like a winner to me!

Just like the adjacent laundry mat and restaurant/bar I'm posting this note from.

Bob Wilson

 

I like the idea of a plug in car. For the technology to make a meaningful penetration in this country it will have to work for normal people that are not interested in having a science project in the driveway. The Prius and Volt have met this test and this article points out that the Tesla and current infrastructure is not there yet.

 

At home overnight charging is the standard, not public charging stations and not quick chargers.

If you guys think you need to wait for a public/quick charging infrastructure to be built out before you can realize the value of an EV you probably would have also waited until after WWII to transition from a horse drawn buggy to a gasoline powered vehicle.

A Tesla with a 40kWh/150 mile range would mean I might charge overnight twice a week.

 

Why are all of you shooting the messenger? If a journalist can't figure this stuff out even with the whole PR department for Tesla helping him why blame him? Obviously cold weather creates lots of problems for this car currently. That's the nature of new technology, it's buggy... So why ya'll got be haters? What the journalist did wasn't exactly "clueless." Maybe a bit ignorant, but I say the Tesla PR department really botched this one....

 

Uh, no.

Thankfully rare, I have only rarely, once per year on average, I needed to drive more than 200 miles in one day. But some have not been predictable and a smaller number could have been satisfied by a rental.

If you want a hard requirement:

• 24 hours at 50 mph
• 8 hours recharge

This pretty well matches my particular endurance. Meet my requirements and I am interested.

Bob Wilson

 

The 'messenger' has a history of purposely making things look more difficult than they really are.
He did it to Apple when he 'showed' how difficult it was to create and publish an app in the apple store.

However, you have a valid point that, Tesla also failed to some extent.

What I can't believe is that Tesla didn't advise the reporter the difference between range and standard charge. I don't know how the conversation went between the reporter and Tesla, only what limited bits the reporter mentioned.

I also find it hard to believe that the reporter was not advised to plug the car in overnight.

And I find it unbelievable that the reporter was told by Tesla to "precondition" the battery in the morning if they knew the car wasn't plugged in. There is no reason, wait no, it is actually detrimental to do this as you will loose range without moving the car. He should have just started driving. The batteries would have warmed up as he drove.

I find it far more likely that the reporter was told to plug in overnight, he didn't, and when he called the next morning, Tesla asked him if it was plugged in. He didn't want to look stupid, so he compounded the error by saying yes and got information that ended up being detrimental rather than helpful.

But yes, Tesla could have handled it better and huge mistakes were made by either Tesla, the reporter, or both.

 

Wrong on several counts. The Tesla's range of 250 miles covers 95% of driving in the US.

This test was for the other 5%, going on a long trip which, even with gas cars requires some planning where you may find yourself 40-50 miles between service stations. In this case, the Tesla (or any electric) will likely have many MORE opportunities to refuel than a gas vehicle as any open business will have a receptacle if, as the reporter seems to have done deliberately, one does not understand the basics of the vehicles operation. People running out of gas on the highway has been a cliched reality since the Model T.

As for mass adoption, many truck stops are now equipped with hundreds of 240V receptacles so trucks can plug in vs. keeping their engines running and pumping out pollution. These are mostly used at night providing a large mass recharging station during the day for EV's.

Again, most EV's won't be needed to recharge during the day, home fueling is not an option for gasoline vehicles but it is the norm for EV's and for long range EV's like the Tesla or even the RAV4 (100 miles) charging at home or work will be the norm, only 5% will need public charging stations.

 

Are you saying that you won't consider an EV until it can go 1200 miles without a charge?

 

sorry... TESLA = FAIL.

if this journalist can't get this thing to work.. neither will I. range anxiety is a real world problem. When Toyata comes out with a fully functional EV that's when I'll consider it. Obviously not ready for prime time. Telsa will go the way of the dodo bird.