Consumer Reports initial test of Model S in winter chills

I'll report if I spy him again. I had not researched the WV tax credits but will do that ASAP. Thanks for the info.

 

I now drive an '012 Prius III. Brought it home yesterday and studying the 2 textbook owners manuals today.

 

is that supposed to be a proof how well lit up it is?

because it isnt, lol.. and anyway, it was 0.6 miles in the parking lot.

both points of contention - 80mph which was reached for a second according to the computer and in area where he didnt have problem with a charge and 0.6 mile parking joy ride are so ridicilous that it makes little sense to even discuss them.

oh noe, he drove 0.6 miles in circles to deplete the battery. Wth.


He drove the car under the speed limit on average and often without heating.

CR got worse results than him probably with normal heating and normal speeds.

 

are batteries warrantied for charge % or just for failure?

 

problem with the fact is that, once again, he drove for quite a while with no heating and parking lot drive was 0.6 miles.

thats the problem. Musk showed you one point where his customer should have turned off the heating and you obviously dont care to actually look at hole chart and see that for last 90 miles of the trip, it was at under 70F and mostly 64F.

In fact, for 120 miles of his total trip, his heater was off it seems.

so yeah, he was freezing... just not at the point where Musk circled.

And yeah, he "was circling in the parking lot", but for 0.6 miles.

Same goes for 80mph, it was reached for 1 second and then it turned to something like him driving at those speeds all the time, when data clearly shows him driving under the speed limit for most of the time.

But once again, CR got some 30 miles less than NYT on the same drive driving with normal heating and normal traffic speed.

He shouldnt have driven Tesla with heater off for 120 miles at all. He shouldnt have driven it under the speed limit at all.

He should have driven it normally, like CR did and called tow truck 30 miles before the charging station and give his users real account of what it means to buy $100k EV in 2013.

 

i expected it to be some big marked space looking like gas station and with big sign TESLA SUPERCHARGER.

it is not lit whatsoever, it just occupies two parking spaces on the parking lot with ono marking that is visible anywhere at all.

 

The NYT reporter crafted a "story" to accompany his photo opportunity of putting a Tesla on a flatbed. His "story" contained many details to lend credibility. But the story also seemed to be intentionally crafted to walk the reader around the fact that he did not fully charge the vehicle in what appears to be several deliberate attempts to run the vehicle out of charge.

The reporter thought he was going to accomplish his goal on the first leg of the trip by only charging to 90%, spending some extra miles in Manhattan, turning the heater up, and using a heavy foot. His attempt was defeated because the vehicle had some reserve.

Having learned that the vehicle has some reserve, he intentionally undercharged again, this time to only 72%, and then set out to repeat his attempt. When he thought he had been successful, Tesla reps offered a solution, "plug it in", which he did but then decided to unplug again before getting enough charge and drive until he ran to empty.

Most people would recognize this "abuse" for what it is, but the reporter knows his craft and how to write a "story". Several people have attempted to repeat the "story" and they were unsuccessful, making the same trip without the dramatic flatbed photo opportunity. The difference? They fully charged the vehicle at each charging opportunity.

 

eh, maybe you haven't been shopping in a while:
most luxurious bmw - Yahoo! Search Results

so I guess I missed your point

 

UPDATE: NYT, John Broder and Tesla Show Mainstream News Media Needs a Make Over

If the only thing Broder had done wrong was circle the lot, we might give him the benefit of the doubt, that he was lost. Things just don't add up though. It really seems easy to find the milford super charger station.

I'd say that the fact that he purposely undercharged the car 3 times, makes it likely he had no interest in writing a fair story. Given the other exagerations, it does make it likely that he also lied about being lost at milford. It is likely that he did not fake needing a tow truck, but he manipulated the car into needing the said truck by not fully charging it the night before. He claims he did this because it would have enough power, which was clearly wrong, and against Tesla's recommendation. Maybe he just stopped circling, and decided to undercharge the car so it would die the next day, instead of taking up more time hoping the heat in the parking lot would kill the battery We can't really know what was going through his head, or if he was really lost. We do know he left the parking lot undercharged on purpose, and hit 80 mph heading to the hotel.

 

In the US,

No conventional car owner spends hours on the road adding more fuel.

No conventional car owner gives more than a passing thought to how much fuel is in the car at the start of a trip.

No conventional car owner really cares how long the trip is so far as car range/fuel-up is concerned.

So yes, Tesla (and other EV manufacturers) have disclosure responsibilities to prospective owners different than ICE manufacturers.

 

disagree... NYT reporter used the car as most Americans would and guess what? it failed in the real world. i guess if you don't like the results you can call him a liar. he drove around in circles... to find the charging station.. he didn't have the heat off.. wait he actually did and was freezing his butt off to extend range... He drove over 85.. wait it was only for 30 seconds... he didn't charge it fully.. yet the range showed he had enough range to make it. but... but ... but. FAIL.

Like I said Car Battery Manufacturers need to put up

1. car battery degradation by year.
2. range loss by hour and temp when unplugged.

that way you will avoid confusion.. and the the consumer will be much better informed than they are now. I'm sure the EV manufacturers will be against this because they want to promote the dream of these cars as road trip cars.

it's a commuter car and you need to plug it in every night. that's what the experience of the NYT reporter showed.

 

That is factually incorrect. Most americans would fully charge a car on free electricity if they were worried about running out of power. Most americans would also wait until they had power instead of driving off on empty.

Do you want to conduct a poll and find the percentage that would attempt a 61 mile trip with only 32 miles worth of fuel?

Broder failed to test the car or network. He tested his ability to deceive, and I guess he was successful with you. Would you have decided to stop charging at 72% because you were sure a cold soak wouldn't affect you? That seems ignorant or deceptive

 

Zythryn owns a Tesla in MN and has driven EV for 3 winters. He says (and I have no reason to doubt him,) that the range decrease noted on the meter after a cold soak is something of an artefact that corrects as the battery warms up.

Parenthetically, it is also why Tesla let Broder continue his trip with 'only' ~ 30 miles showing on the meter for a much longer leg.

 

you obviously haven't worked with consumers.... so that's factually incorrect.

like I said. the car manufacturers need to post battery performance numbers.

still doesn't change the fact that this car is not a road trip car and needs to be plugged in every night and has serious range issues. fact is it doesn't go 300 miles on charge when you stop and have it unplugged... or it's cold.. or it's hot.. or if you have a 2 year old battery. there is serious range degradation that the consumer is unaware of

 

I typically work with businesses, and that includes training some low paid employees some times. What in your great experience will tell you that if someone is scared of running out of fuel, they will underfuel a car. How is that typical.

My worst trip with the prius was 16.9 mpg. I don't think Toyota needs to post that. There are plenty of opportunities for someone taking a road trip to inconviently pull off and charge their car. They don't need a flat bed. That was all about the photo-op. But I guess you want to believe that everyone else would decide to under charge their car, when the power is free, and they they have just almost ran out.

You are arguing something quite different here. First you said broder's behavior was what a typical driver would do. I think only an idiot would behave like that if they didn't have another agenda. What is yours.

Your other point, that BEVs are less convient than SUVs on long road trips, absolutely true but beside the point. You first need to meet the facts, then we can talk about limitations on another thread. The 85kwh Tesla S is certainly is up for the task of the drive from DC to Boston unless the driver is an idiot or clearly doesn't want to make it. I don't think Broder is an idiot, but I'm not so sure about his defenders.

Do you really believe most americans given a tesla S to drive would not charge it up with free power? That they would look at a meter and decide they have enough, time to move on, margin for error be damned. That seems to be what you are arguing, but I for the life of me can not understand how you think the rest of us are that stupid.