Killing the electric car?

[TripTango]

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive

Not terribly surprising, but it does make me wonder how high up the chain of command this kind of thing goes.

 

[Eastoff]

Maybe he REALLY loves huffing gas?

 

[TripTango]

Maybe he REALLY loves huffing gas?

Well, he could have at least said so in his review.

"The car ran great, even when I deliberately tried to sabotage my own trip by driving in circles in a parking lot. On the downside, however, there was no gas to huff."

 

[Denny Crane]

Is there a mechanic in Portland who can work on one of these if you need service? How about in La Pine?

 

[TripTango]

Is there a mechanic in Portland who can work on one of these if you need service? How about in La Pine?

Certainly a valid point, but not the one made by the reviewer in this case.

 

[Denny Crane]

Certainly a valid point, but not the one made by the reviewer in this case.

The reviewer makes a valid case, too. Realize the tesla guys are going to be defensive that their auto was given a poor review.

If you tried to drive a tesla from texas to california, you probably would run out of electricity. There just aren't enough charging locations close together enough.

 

[TripTango]

The reviewer makes a valid case, too. Realize the tesla guys are going to be defensive that their auto was given a poor review.

If you tried to drive a tesla from texas to california, you probably would run out of electricity. There just aren't enough charging locations close together enough.

It IS a good point, and I think the reviewer could have eloquently expressed it after (what would have been) a successful trip. But did you see the data logs? They pretty conclusively show that the reviewer blatantly lied about multiple key points throughout the review, even going so far as to drive around in circles to drain the battery and purposefully stop charging long before he should have. That's not "a poor review" -- that's a scripted farce and arguably libelous.

 

[Denny Crane]

I read the original review a few days ago. It more resembles what I talked about (distance between charging locations) than it does what the blog talks about.

FWIW

 

[TripTango]

I read the original review a few days ago. It more resembles what I talked about (distance between charging locations) than it does what the blog talks about.

FWIW

But the test drive in question (on the East coast) had more than enough charging stations along the route to make the trip comfortably. You have no problem with reviewers deliberately lying about a test drive in order to underscore a point they are trying to make about the car's technology?

 

[KeepOnRollin]

If he wanted it to fail so bad (legitimately) he should have just drove it in the Midwest or Northwest.

 

[mobes23]

I've got a friend at work who has the roadster and he loves it. Only downside to it is that he's tall and that thing sits pretty low to the ground. I've never heard him say a bad thing about it.

 

[DaLincolnJones]

John Broder from The New York Times responded two hours ago at the Times for some reason Icant postthe link but it is a good read

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

so musk essentially gave them the good ol' apple "you're holding it wrong" excuse.

 

[TripTango]

so musk essentially gave them the good ol' apple "you're holding it wrong" excuse.

No -- he gave them the old "you're a damn liar" accusation. Either Tesla has completely doctored their car's onboard sensors (possible, but it seems unlikely) or Broder purposefully sabotaged his own trip, not knowing that the details were being logged.

 

[TripTango]

Interesting -- here's Broder's response. He's now putting the brunt of the blame on the Tesla techs who apparently gave him bad advice when he called them. I wonder if there are recorded logs of those calls?

EDIT: In particular, the claim that the test car's tires were of non-standard diameter (which could have thrown off the speed/range calcs) seems significant. If that was not taken into consideration by Tesla's calculations, it could really hurt their credibility in this matter.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

If god had wanted cars to run on electricity then gas would have an electrical charge to it.