Rick Ibsen unloads the Model S from a flatbed truck at the Supercharger station in Milford, Conn. (John Broder/The New York Times.)
John Broder of the New York Times test-drove a Tesla Model S on an interstate road trip in cold weather, and encountered problems with drive time and charge time falling way short of expectations. The resulting article: “Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway.”
“I drove a state-of-the-art electric vehicle past a lot of gas stations,” he writes. “I wasn’t smiling.”
Well, neither was Tesla founder/CEO Elon Musk after he read the negative review.
The Tesla Model S, which starts at around $52,400 USD.
Musk tweeted, “NYTimes article about Tesla range in cold is fake. Vehicle logs tell true story that he didn’t actually charge to max & took a long detour.”
This isn’t the first time Tesla and Musk have fought back against critical reviews: their libel lawsuit against the BBC over a 2008 episode of the popular automotive show Top Gear ended up being tossed out of court.