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Elon Musk has a billion dollars riding on calling the NY Times a liar and discrediting them.

Here's the thing though: the problem with the Tesla battery is the same problem that every other EV to date has had in sub-zero weather: they lose their charge and the charging meter gets decalibrated.

Tesla's bane is not a biased NY Times reporter. Their fundamental mistake was giving an EV to the NY Times to test drive in the middle of one of the coldest winters on record.

EDIT: Also one of the warmest winters on record in that area of the country, but not during the period of the NY Times' test.



I agree, The NYT has global influence and like you say TESLA is in a sink or swim situation.

But I have to ask this: doesn't is take some 30-years to get a technology completely figured out and completely usable with no hassles or bugs and could Tesla be entering the second decade of that process? You mentioned the cold weather and that is definitely a valid consideration that has to addressed.

To use the web as an analogy, it took 12-years to create, 4-years to grow and produce a web-browser. 3-more years to commercialize and another 10-years to become part of everything we do.

With that in mind, perhaps TESLA is reluctant to admit that they are just in the "browser creation" stage and they still have work to do?


"Elon Musk has a billion dollars riding on calling the NY Times a liar and discrediting them."

No, he doesn't. It's one review out of many, the vast majority of which are far more favorable to the car.

There's some cost to Tesla to letting the review stand, but it's certainly not a billion dollars, or even hundreds of millions.

What is certain to happen now is that some credible auto review magazine is going to take a closer look at the way the car runs in cold weather.

If Musk is lying, he's going to get nailed. That's going to hurt a lot more than the one review.

The reporter, on the other hand, has no choice but to stick with his story now.




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