Fun2Drive

People bought $100k car cannot use their heaters in freezing winter and are not allowed to drive at 80 mile/H even for passing? This is a new car. How about after 3years or 5years?

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

So from what I'm getting here, everyone involved in stupid. The reporter is stupid because he caused his own range anxiety by stopping his charges when he thinks he has enough charge left and thinks that there is a hill big enough on the I-95 to spike his speed to near 80 MPH. Tesla support is stupid because they told the guy to disconnect at the normal speed charger after an hour despite the readout giving a 32 mile range. Musk is stupid because he's reacting to this whole thing like a spoiled child.

Side note - I think I'd trust the black box more than 'well my notes said I charged for 58 minutes'

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

Nope, reporters that drive a $100K car that don't know that they should plug in their electric car overnight regardless of weather can't drive at 80 MPH or use their heaters

mmarshall

My own experience in winter has been that, in many cases, my own not-so-small butt warms the seat faster than its heater-grid....even with Subarus, which are specifically designed for cold weather. Of course, that doesn't do much for the rest of the interior, if it is like an icebox.

chikoo

Same was said for iphone. cannot replace battery. bad design. I cannot replace battery instantly.
what happened?
Users changed their habits.

chikoo

and we want more of this on the social media? LOL.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

CNN recreates infamous Tesla Model S drive with miles to spare, others to try this weekend

You knew this was coming, didn't you? Even more prisms through which to look at the failed (or is that "failed"?) Tesla Model S drive up the East Coast that The New York Times reported on last weekend. We're going to assume you know what's been happening with this, but if not, then you can get caught up by reading this, this and this. All set? Good.

Today, CNN reporter Peter Valdes-Dapena easily completed all of the miles in a Tesla Model S that the Times' John Broder reported he could not do. The takeaway line: "In the end, I made it – and it wasn't that hard." That Valdes-Dapena managed the trip is perhaps not that big of a surprise, but a small group of Model S owners will try to prove again that 200 miles is no problem, even in the winter cold, for an electric car that's officially rated at 265 miles. The owner convoy is going to set out from the Tesla Service Center in Rockville, Maryland tomorrow morning and then spend the night in Groton, Connecticut, just like Broder did, before turning south again. If you want to follow along tomorrow, stay tuned to TeslaRoadTrip on Twitter. Think it'll start trending?

Also today, Road & Track chimed in to suggest the whole affair is about way more than range, it's about trust: "If you can't fully trust Tesla, then you'll continue to be a customer for the Times. Think for a moment about Broder's article in that context: it's an advertisement for his product at the expense of Tesla's." We're not 100-percent on board with that line of thinking, but it does suggest that there is a lot of meat on the test-drive bones of the original article.

SOURCE AND VIDEO:
http://green.autoblog.com/2013/02/15...ip-more-attem/

adamls2

LOL, way to go CNN!!

spwolf

Winter chills limit range of the Tesla Model S electric car


http://news.consumerreports.org/cars...ars-range.html

I wonder if Musk will go beserk on CR now. Because all of the experience was exactly the same as that NYT reporter... exactly the same. Nothing wrong or bad, just the way the car operates and the "limits" of technology. It clearly shows the range of 176 miles, as well as problems with the range dropping when car is cold.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Tesla Model S road trip drivers find success along NYT's failed drive route

Gallery:
http://green.autoblog.com/photos/tes...photo-5647824/

In the last week, we have read and written many thousands of words about the Tesla Model S road trip that The New York Times writer John Broder could not accomplish. Thanks to a critical tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a digital firestorm erupted about the electric vehicle test drive (if you need a refresher, please read these posts in order: one, two, three and four). In all those passionate paragraphs, nothing stood out quite like this little understatement: "There is a learning curve to taking long road trips in an EV, especially in the cold."

That's from an open letter to Broder written by Peter over at Electric Road Trips. Peter recently drove his own Model S almost 5,000 miles from Portland, OR to New York City. Despite the reality that most EVs aren't particularly suited for long drives, the truth is that it can be done, and a group of Model S owners set out to prove that fact once again this weekend.

We'll spoil the story now: all the drivers made it. From a report by Xander over at Strassenversion, a small number of Model S owners (something like six, but at times there were over a dozen vehicles together) spent Saturday and Sunday recreating the east coast drive that Broder attempted and failed. In his honor, as it were, they came up with the term Brodering – "running out of power due to human error, or generally dropping the ball when dealing with electric cars" – along the way.

Still, despite the drivers being well in tune with their EVs, the drive wasn't 100-percent easy. One Model S plugged into a Supercharger just stopped charging and wouldn't fill up past 180 miles of range (the target at that point was 270). Strassenversion reports that two special firmware updates (delaying the driver by an hour) were required to set things right.

Late last night, the official Tesla Road Trip group tweeted, "The trip was a success and everyone has diverted to their homes" (see the official twitter feed here). Thom Landon tweeted, "This is an amazing show of solidarity. Hopefully an antidote to the crummy he said/she said coverage of NYT." Two short videos of the trip are available below. We expect more to surface soon.

In other Tesla/The New York Times spat news, the Atlantic Wire threw some cold water on CNN's recreation of Broder's drive, saying it was done in "a Tesla-controlled PR bubble. Yes, it proves the car can do the coastal trek. But it doesn't mean that Broder did everything in his power to sabotage the trip. Nor does it signal much for consumers. Some people spending $100,000 on a car might not want to drive it up the coast without going above 65 miles per hour or, on a particularly bitter day, turning the heat up." The Oroville Mercury-Register talked to some experts who agreed that Musk was well within his rights – and was smart – to respond to Broder's article. And, let's admit, Musk certainly has gotten a lot of mileage out of 140 characters. Too bad you can't power a car on tweets.



http://green.autoblog.com/2013/02/18...problem-video/

spwolf

yikes. lol.

I wonder what happens in few months when they start selling 1500 per month.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

it's definitely an "early adopter's" vehicle, so it's not perfect. it hasn't had a century of refinement and trial-and-error like combustion engine cars.

so it's got a ways to go and it's not for most people, but all the issues and successes learned will only make it better over time, provided tesla doesn't run out of money, and that seems unlikely. although last time i checked, their stock price was absurdly high.

the nyt's reporter may have changed the 'truth' to evade his rushing the test, not doing the test properly, and probably rushing for an editorial deadline.

but yeah, Allen's right - plenty of stupidity to go around here. and musk is not the best p.r. person. he prefers only talking to true believers.

anthrax144

Yikes? How long would you be delayed if you ran out of gas on the highway?

If I had $100k to drop on a car, I'd have zero issues plopping it down on the most advanced production car built to this point. From everything I've seen, Tesla has bent over backwards to support their customers and address every issue that has come up. Tesla is clearly paving the path for other manufacturers to advance the EV technology to bigger and better heights.

anthrax144

Sure they can. Just don't expect to get the full range. How is that any different than using your AC on a hot summer day in a gas powered car? You're going to get significantly less mpg's using your AC or driving at 80mph than if you did 60mph and didn't use any climate control.

gengar

Given all the new information we've gotten with respect to the test, I have to disagree completely. It's hard to believe Broder 'didn't do the test properly' when most of his actions were a direct result of instructions he got over the phone from Tesla staff. As I mentioned above, IMO the real assault on truth by the NYT was covering up for Tesla. The original article doesn't mention that the NYT felt compelled to submit their drive plan to Tesla for vetting, or that Tesla had a full team of engineers were constantly monitoring telemetry from the drive, or that Broder called Tesla ~12 times during the test for technical support. And we are learning new things now from other articles, like Tesla doing live firmware updates on test cars to try to fix range issues. It's just amazing the PR bubble Tesla has created. How much more stuff are we not hearing about? Most of the reports we read don't mention anything, but from the NYT and others, we know it's there.

That's why spwolf has a point. When the Tesla models become more mainstream (or heck even just sell a couple units), are the owners going to experience this type of service? Is Tesla going to have engineering teams monitoring telemetry every time any Tesla car hits the road, provide 24/7 telephone staff who pick up immediately when every owner calls 12+ times over a 2-or-whatever-day drive, and be ready to immediately hand out hour-long firmware updates anytime someone has a problem? Is Tesla also going to be as draconian as they were in this review? Is Tesla going to force their owners to submit their daily driving plans for approval, and then subject them to ridiculous and infantile Musk PR attacks if they say or write anything negative about their ownership experience?

This whole thing just stinks. As I mentioned previously, it's as bad as Ferrari providing two vehicles - one for straight line work and one for the track - for magazine reviews. And it's an absolute travesty when the journalistic entities don't inform the reader that such occurs.

That's why I just don't buy that Broder was out to "sabotage" the drive. If he'd really wanted to vilify Tesla, he would have written about how he had to call Tesla engineers 12 times over the drive to keep asking them why the range was lower than it was supposed to be. He would have written about how Tesla support staff had incorrect information on how to jump a battery and couldn't figure it out. He would have written about how Tesla engineers told him not to charge the battery to full and that's why he ran out of power. Etc., etc., etc. But no. He kept all that hidden from the public in his initial report, choosing only to reveal it when he needed to defend himself against Musk's PR attack.

I honestly don't care whether Tesla's vehicles are awesome or they suck, just like I don't care that much whether Ferrari cars are awesome or suck. What I do certainly care about is if Ferrari is lying to us, and especially if Tesla is lying to us since they get taxpayer funding. And I certainly care when journalistic outlets sacrifice their integrity and lie to their readers just to prop up companies and brands, be it Ferrari or Tesla.