The New York Times recently tried to drive a Tesla Model S from Washington, DC to near Boston, MA using only Tesla's new Supercharger fast charging stations. They finished the trip on a flatbed. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has now taken to Twitter to express his displeasure. He says the story is "fake." Shots fired.
Tesla has put two all new 480 volt Supercharger stations in Newark, DE and Milford, CT. In just 30 minutes they can give the cars an additional 150 miles of range. Pretty nifty. John Broder from the NY Times drove the car through both Supercharger stations, but each time ran out of juice long before he was supposed to. It got to the last charge point on the back of a flatbed.
Musk says this is fake. He says Broder did not totally fill the car up and he didn't take the most direct routes. The long detours and partial charge contributed to the problem.
Basically, Musk thinks his company was done a disservice in the test. We emailed Elon to volunteer to do a drive like this ourselves to see if it was faked. Musk replied and said "that would be great." Hopefully we'll be behind the wheel soon.
The New York Times hasn't commented to us on the alleged fakery quite yet.
UPDATE: Here is a statement on the test straight from the New York Times:
The Times's February 10 article recounting a reporter's test drive in a Tesla Model S was completely factual, describing the trip in detail exactly as it occurred. Any suggestion that the account was "fake" is, of course, flatly untrue. Our reporter followed the instructions he was given in multiple conversations with Tesla personnel. He described the entire drive in the story; there was no unreported detour. And he was never told to plug the car in overnight in cold weather, despite repeated contact with Tesla.
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