surfingslovak said:
Slate: Tesla Motors vs John Broder
Soon, the entire tech press is going to be writing about this. Let's hope that it will end on an upbeat note.
He makes a decent case on a number of points and by his account some of Tesla's representatives sound surprisingly clueless. That being said, if they did give the advice he claims, he seems all too willing to hang Tesla by their own rope, in a manner of speaking:
I placed the first of about a dozen calls to Tesla personnel expressing concern about the car’s declining range and asking how to reach the Supercharger station in Milford, Conn. I was given battery-conservation advice at that time (turn off the cruise control; alternately slow down and speed up to take advantage of regenerative braking)...
I'm not sure what bona fides are required to become "Washington bureau reporter responsible for coverage of energy, environment and climate change", but it seems to me that such a person would have enough of an education to reject the notion of perpetual motion implicit in the slow-down/speed-up advice. In fact I'd expect any reasonably intelligent Junior-High-schooler to see through that one.
Likewise, he left the final charging spot with insufficient range
because Tesla told him to?
Some of this still doesn't wash.
If the purpose was to report on utilization of Tesla's super-charge stations, why undercharge at every opportunity? If the task is to utilize the equipment, what point is served by deliberately UNDER-utilizing the equipment? It doesn't make any sense. Does the NYT feel the need to belabor the point that if you under-utilize the equipment enough, you will run out of power?
If the point is that the car's range estimator is inaccurate (a legitimate issue), or that the impact of cold temperatures is signficant (a legitimate issue), or that an hour is too long to wait (a subjective issue), those points could just as easily been made having done the trip with full charges. And for better or worse, without the drama of a flatbed. Cutting it close was not proper for the task at hand, not a proper task for a first-time driver, or a reporter who has purportedly done such little research that they have to call Tesla for advice a dozen times! Seriously? A reporter responsible for energy coverage in DC, for one of the world's premier news organizations, and has covered electric vehicles in the past, who has no idea about public charging stations?
And what's this about frozen feet and knuckles turning white? Because the CC was set to 65F for a bit? That's where I put it when I've got a heavy jacket on, so I don't sweat. This guy's ready for the morgue??
While some of Tesla's conclusions may be off the mark, Broder has spun a tale that is just a little too cute, imho.
