After 2 weeks it seems everyone has an opinion on why New
York Times journalist John M Broder had such a disappointing experience with
the Tesla Model S. From his original article
it appeared that the car of the future wasn't quite ready for primetime in
spite of claims to the contrary and 13,000 pre-orders for the model.
Broder's extended test drive was meant to simulate a long
distance road trip to measure the practicality of the car with a focus on
"future" charging stations. What
he found was a vehicle and an infrastructure unprepared for "the real world." A reality underscored by woefully inadequate vehicle
support and a mileage range that was overly optimistic at best. Broder wasn't aware, for example, that the
Model S batteries could lose most of their charge in cold temperatures. An event Broder experienced during his trip.
Shortly after Broder published his misadventures with the
car, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk shot back on the company's blog accusing Broder of
improperly operating the car.
Musk revealed that the cars detailed data logging showed that Broder
appeared to be trying to run the car out of charge and deliberately ignored warning
indicators.
Musk appears to believe Broder has it in for the electric
car and cited a previous article of his as proof. In Musk's blog he quoted Broder,
"Yet the state of the electric car is dismal, the
victim of hyped expectations, technological flops, high costs and a hostile
political climate."
Musk again relying on the data logging of the car revealed
that Broder had driven the car at the "excessive" speeds of anywhere
between 65 and 81 MPH for the majority of the trip with the heater set to 72
F. Which apparently is unreasonable for
a long road trip in middle of a New England winter.
What's been lost in the dust-up is a very real truth. The all electric vehicle may be part of our
motoring future but it's not exclusive to it.
Should Broder have spent a few hours reading the owner's manual and
mapped out his route more carefully? Probably,
but just as the superior music quality of the CD lost out to the convenience of
the MP3, a successful all electric vehicle will need to be easy to operate.
The excuse of failure because "you didn't use it
right" doesn't hold any water anymore.
The "real" world rarely offers up ideal conditions and
consumer products need to be able to cope with that fact. If you claim an average range of 265 miles on
a charge but base it on ideal weather and traffic conditions at 50MPH speeds you're not reflecting the
"real" world.
After reading Musk's blog entry I can't help but draw
similarities between him and Jimmy Fallon's patronizing Saturday Night Live
character of Nick Burns, the computer guy.
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