Tesla co-founder Elon Musk with the Model S
Electric car maker Tesla fired back at the New York Times Wednesday, claiming the paper falsified a recent story about the company’s “Model S” vehicle running out of juice during a long range test drive and leaving the writer stranded in the cold Connecticut countryside.
In a blog post on the company’s website, Tesla (TSLA) founder Elon Musk accused Times writer John Broder of unplugging the car before it received a full charge, lying about how fast he drove, driving in circles, and taking other measures to deliberately run down the battery. Musk posted screen shots of what he said was data from the car to back up his claims.
“In Mr. Broder’s case, he simply did not accurately capture what happened and worked very hard to force our car to stop running,” Musk wrote.
Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur behind other cutting edge ventures including PayPal and SpaceX, went on to accuse Broder of harboring a bias towards electric cars, and called for the Times to investigate.
“When the facts didn’t suit his opinion, he simply changed the facts,” wrote Musk. “Our request of The New York Times is simple and fair: please investigate this article and determine the truth.”
Related: On the road in a Model S
The bad press could be quite damaging for Tesla and the electric car industry in general, which has struggled to sell as many cars as it hoped amid continuing challenges with the technology and lower than expected gas prices.
Tesla has been so miffed by the story, and so convinced it got a raw deal, that the company invited other reporters to make a similar trip. On Thursday morning, CNNMoney’s Peter Valdes-Dapena, embarked on his own Washington D.C. to Boston journey in a Tesla Model S.
In Washington DC with the @TeslaMotors Model S. So, here we go. Boston or bust! #Tesla http://t.co/wMiFHZpr—
Peter Valdes-Dapena (@PeterDrives) February 14, 2013
Peter hits the road. The first leg definitely seems fun.
This first leg is the fun part in the @TeslaMotors Model S. Left with 270 miles range, 89 to 1st charging stop. Awesome torque!—
Peter Valdes-Dapena (@PeterDrives) February 14, 2013
At 3:02 p.m. Peter reports from Newark, Del., the Model S is charging up for the second leg of the journey to the next Tesla Supercharger station.
1st charge stop. 200 miles to next @TeslaMotors Supercharger and we’ll have about 270 range. W/ @AbigailBassett http://t.co/qWtAgAUq—
Peter Valdes-Dapena (@PeterDrives) February 14, 2013
At 3:59 p.m. with the gauges showing 269 miles of range (and a well-fed Peter Valdes-Dapena) it’s off to Milford Conn., 200 miles away.
With 269 miles in the @TeslaMotors Model S (and a chicken burrito in me) producer @AbigailBassett and I are heading out—
Peter Valdes-Dapena (@PeterDrives) February 14, 2013
Musk’s Thursday post wasn’t his first response to the story. On Monday, after the piece appeared in Sunday’s New York Times, Musk tweeted this:
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 feud has sparked much conversation on Twitter:
This Tesla vs. NYTimes story is getting crazy. Musk accusing Times journo, in detail, of outright fraud. boingboing.net/2013/02/14/tes…—
Christopher Mims (@mims) February 14, 2013
This dispute between Telsa and the New York Times over a review is moving into @Sulliview territory, don’t you think? bit.ly/YZWTGE—
Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) February 14, 2013
That last post referrers to Margaret Sullivan, public editor for the New York Times.
The story itself is a highly entertaining read from Broder that chronicles the writer freezing in the slow lane on I-95, waiting in smoke-filled coffee shops for the car to charge, and ultimately having to put the $101,000 luxury “Model S” sedan on a flatbed tow truck.
Broder says the gauges told him he had enough juice to make the trip, and then he didn’t.
On Thursday morning Broder tweeted a link to a defense of his article, and said he did nothing wrong:
Here’s my earlier response to @elonmusk‘s earlier assertions: nyti.ms/X2JP4c.
Stay tuned.—
John Broder (@jbrodernyt) February 14, 2013