Tesla Motors Accuses New York Times of False Review, NY Times Balks

Tesla Motors is crossing its arms and blowing a proverbial raspberry in the general direction of the New York Times this week. Apparently, handling a bad review with eloquence and grace just isn’t in Tesla’s bag of tricks.

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Tesla Motor’s Electric Model S

After a pretty harsh review from John Broder, of the New York Times, was published on February 8th claiming that the Electric Model S ran out of power and had to be towed while being test driven, Tesla Motor’s has pulled out all the stops (including some pretty nasty tweets) to ensure a little damage control.

The review chronicled Broder’s journey from D.C. to Conneticut to test drive and review Tesla’s Model S. While on the drive, Broder claims that the car began losing power sooner that it was supposed to, forcing him to turn down the heat inside the car and drive slower than the speed limit. Ultimately, Broder says the car had to be towed to the nearest charging station.

Of course, if this is true, the review will mean bad news for Tesla Motors, who claims the car should be able to go 250 if not 300 miles without a charge. Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, rabidly defended the car, claiming that Broder’s statements in the review were false and that he failed to charge the car completely before embarking on his review trip.

While it’s hard to tell if the accusations are true on either side of the debate, this is not the first time Tesla has had a run in with a media outlet. Last year, Tesla lost in an attempt to sue BBC’s Top Gear program for supposedly “falsifying” a review they did of Tesla’s 2008 Roadster Model.

Either way, the tiff between Tesla and NYT is far from over. Tesla claims they will be releasing a blog that will tell ‘what really happened’ on Broder’s trip and I highly doubt the New York Times will remain silent on the issue,

 

One Comment

  1. mikethemusicman says:

    Well a backup generator is out of the question? Of course getting the electric charge inn those areas is by a power plant driven by Coal. So much for the zero emissions. I think I would rethink biodiesel as a fuel option. That is my choice.

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