The New York Times poured freezing cold water on the hopes of those wishing for a powerful electric sedan Monday. Writer John Broder took the Tesla Model S for a spin from DC to Boston to test the company's claim that you could do the whole trip by recharging at its two new charging stations along the way.
After multiple charging issues in the winter cold, Broder says he finally broke down on a freeway ramp in Connecticut and had to be towed to the nearest station. "Theory can be trumped by reality," he wrote, "especially when Northeast temperatures plunge." (Read the full article here.)
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But Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk fired back on Twitter with some unusually strong language. Broder's story was fake, he said. The writer had taken detours and diversions and had more charge left than he claimed -- and Tesla had the logs to prove it.
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.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2013
The proof? Coming soon, said Musk:
Tesla blog coming soon detailing what actually happened on Broder's NYTimes "range test". Also lining up other journalists to do same drive.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2013
The Times, meanwhile, stuck to its guns. "The article recounting a reporter's test drive in a Tesla Model S was completely factual," the paper said in a statement. "Any suggestion that the account was 'fake' is, of course, flatly untrue."
This isn't the first time Tesla has hit back forcefully against what it saw as misleading reviews. It has twice launched unsuccessful libel lawsuits against the BBC car show Top Gear, whose presenter Jeremy Clarkson is avowedly anti-electric car. Clarkson once claimed he only got a 50-mile range on his Tesla Roadster; Musk says the logs show he had another 50 to go.
And that would explain why the logging device in Broder's car was turned on apparently without his knowledge:
Tesla data logging is only turned on with explicit written permission from customers, but after Top Gear BS, we always keep it on for media.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2013
For his part, Broder has not yet responded on Twitter or elsewhere (his Twitter account has not been active since October).
But Broder wouldn't seem as likely as Clarkson to do a hatchet job -- he is, after all, a prominent environmental writer for the Times.
Who are you backing in this war of words? Let us know in the comments, and check out our interview with Musk in the video below: