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CNN Replicates John Broder's Drive In the Tesla Model S
karlnyberg writes "Adding a third voice to the conflict between Tesla's Elon Musk and New York Times Reporter John Broder, CNN/Money's Peter Valdes-Dapena drove from DC to Boston (primarily to test the SuperCharger network). As he says in the article: In the end, I made it — and it wasn't that hard. ... As for the Supercharger network? Turns out that works, too.' He expands on this a bit: 'Looking back on the trip, it would be even easier if Tesla would install one of their fast-charging Superchargers along the New Jersey Turnpike. (These charging stations can fill up a nearly dead battery in Tesla's longest-range cars in about an hour, which is enough time to stop for a meal.) Tesla's working on that, spokeswoman Shanna Hendricks said. But the first priority was to install enough to make this trip, even if you had to take it easy most of the way. But I didn't have to take it that easy, which is good because the Model S provides a pretty amazing mix of smooth and silent performance along with brain-squishing acceleration. So even if you're not driving from Washington to Boston, it's an impressive car, all on its own.'"
On one side you have John Broder who it seems like wants to see this tech fail for some reason or the other (This is just my personal opinion from reading his prior articles). That is the kind of mindset he was in before he even started test driving this. On the other side you have Elon Musk who wants to sell people this new tech which will obviously have some issues in the beginning (which Musk would rather not talk about instead and blame everyone else for it.) . The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. However, Musk's blog post was so convincing I almost find myself not rooting for John Broder at all!
I don't understand why everyone is so gaga over these Tesla's. Is it a beautiful car? Yeah. Is it well made? Yeah. But, the base price remains at $57,400. This is not a car for the masses. It's like writing about an all-electric Mercedes. Who cares?
First, a CEO should only be seen, not heard. If at all, their "voice" should be that of their PR department.
Second, this "replica" test seems staged. It comes right on the heels of Musk lying in public by laying false claims. Like Musk called in a favor to one of his buddies because one of his other buddies said "dude you just called a journalist a slandered a journalist".
To me, 270 mile range sounds fantastic (my car only gets 210 miles to a tank). I know charging points aren't yet as ubiquitous as fuel stations and that's the point of these tests, but seriously 270 mile range is more than enough for most people to do 95% of their regular driving without even considering range.
An hour, at $100 an hour billable or $200 what my employer is charging me? That's funny. The time costs more than the gas.
The New York Times reporter just had the car run out of power, because it makes for an entertaining and popular article.
Much like when the earlier model Tesla was tested on the UK's Top Gear TV show, just to be shown running out of battery far below its predicted range.
Populism.
Are we nuclear yet? Or still burning coal?
A gasoline-burning car is probably less polluting than a coal-burning electrical plant.
Are we nuclear yet? For us to do that, we have to take the maintenance of these plants out of the hands of potential Homer Simpsons.
Have we yet covered the Southwest with solar panels? The tech seems ripe. As long as we don't obstruct any areas where protected species are, this should be a good source of power. It's fusion power, just long-distance.
Why do I still have to commute via car, and why do I always see fifteen cars in the drive-thrus, idling for up to a half hour while they get their "food"?
I make an exception for Taco Bell of course.
While you were busy working, the masses have learned that credit is cheap and so they're buying $50,000 cars now. I am not objecting to your point, because it's a good one, but am pointing out that for many people this is no longer a (mental) barrier to purchase.
Traffic? Did he stop overnight?
10 degrees or 45?
The super charger takes 1 hour to recharge your battery (1.5-2x faster than regular chargers). What happens if these things gets popular? Your battery is low and the outlet is in use. So you wait (30 minutes on average... assuming you're first in the queue) so you can wait another hour to charge. An 8 hour/500 mile drive requires recharging 2 or 3 times. So now it's an 11 hour drive, best case.
The logs in the previous test show that the speed was, for the most part, perfectly reasonable, yet projected range fell at 10% faster than should be expected.
They also showed a huge loss in projected range when the car was stopped.
Do Teslas not work in the cold?
In the NY Times article there was considerable discussion on the weather being cold. Affecting the battery directly by draining power via the heater and indirectly with the possibly lower performance of batteries in the cold. In the CNN article I did not see a discussion on the temperature. The follow up article from teh Times is also interesting.
No, $60k isn't a car for everybody. But it's the only car out there in production which has managed to combine all-electric with useful range in something that doesn't look like something out of an Anime cartoon. It's, for lack of a better term, a real car that happens to be all electric - and it something that nobody else has managed to pull off and produce.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I can go to my parents home with 270 miles range. And if I had a car (actually I do not need one), 270 miles would be more than necessary for me to go from home to work and back, many times. Where do I get one for me? I can not imagine anything better for driving in a city than a car that does not need to keep the engine running when stopped at a traffic light and does not pollute the air.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
You can't pump your own gas in New Jersey, what makes you think you should be allowed to plug in your vehicle for charging?
Leaf owners in Arizona are finding that they have lost up to a third of the range in less than a year due to the hot conditions. Even in ideal climates they lose 20% of their range a year. That is how LiPo works. I agree that 270miles is a range suitable for most, but by the end of 5 years you will be down to 88 in a nice climate, and the battery replacement is going for about $8k for the leaf which is a much smaller battery pack than the tesla's.
Also a note about calling a car with a 900lb battery pack a roadster.... don't. I want my electric powered miata/mgb/lotus as a daily driver as much as anyone, but the batteries simply aren't there yet. If the wealthy want to have them as a toy that is great, but tricking normal people who need a car that just works into getting one is dishonest.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
Why didn't Broder take an picture of the dashboard to show us that the car did indeed shutdown, as he sad it did.
It costs 100,000 dollars - you could buy 5 brand new camrys for that it gets about 200 miles of range in cold weather it requires an 30 -60 minutes to charge are you really going to tell me that it is sane to wait 30 minutes to charge your car ? do you have any idea how long 30 minutes is when you are late to pickup your kids, or late for an appointment ? I could go on, but why bother; why doesn't the slashdot community devote itself to something more important, like why 15,000 dollar Chanel Handbags are or are not appropriate for the opera...
There seems to be a misconception on the temperature difference.
Go Read Broders piece, He said he recieved the car on a Sunny 30F day. He mentioned the temperature while driving was in 30's on day 1.
It only hit 10F overnight while the car was parked. This was the major difference. He parked the car overnight, CNN kept going.
Some have commented on the temperature difference or the fact that Broder did an overnight, stop with the car unplugged.
But the real difference is that Broder who was ostensibly testing the supercharging network, short charged it the Milford Supercharger.
The CNN folks fully charged theirs.
Broder has given multiple questionable excuses for that short charge, so it is looking more and more like it was setting the Tesla up for failure to drama up his story.
A single trip with a single car proves nothing. My neighbor has had his car in the shop 4 times over the past year because of a recurring "check engine light" problem, but my car, of the exact same model and year hasn't had a single problem.
Neither of our anectdotal experiences show that this model is crap, nor that it is good.
Let's see what happens after a 100 or a thousand people drive the car over the route.
You do realize that BBC won the court case because it argued that "top gear reviews are not actual reviews but scripted comedy skits" successfully?
The New York Times is not generally considered a "comedy" publication, grouped into the same category as The Onion.
Though I guess that could change.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
If I only had one gas station every 200 miles, I'd get quite nervous in my car as well. (It does 300 miles per re-fill.) The solution would be a joint-venture with a chain of gas stations, or perhaps for Musk to buy a 50% share in one outright. Are all the gas station chains in North America owned by big mineral oil companies, or are there independent ones? If these chains installed sufficient charging stations, one could get rid of this problem. Once there are more EV on the road, a problem of scalability will crop up. You'll need many more power points at a station than you have now (for gas) if it takes an hour to re-charge. That takes some real estate...
Which is more believable, that the author made something up because he hates electric cars, or that Tesla told him something qualitatively correct but quantitatively incorrect? Anyway, without tapes, it cannot ever be known.
The thing about these Tesla journey's is that they read like an newspaper column about automobile touring from 1902:
AUTOMOBILES IN BOSTON; Sixty-nine Machines Complete First Half of the Journey.
BOSTON, Oct. 11, 1902. -- The first half of the 500-mile reliability contest of the Automobile Club of America from New York to Boston ended at 5:15 to-night in a drenching rain, when Kenneth A. Skinner, in a De Dion-Bouton car, arrived at the finishing point.
Of the 75 machines which left New York Thursday morning 69 finished. The roads from New York to Springfield were excellent, but from Springfield to Boston they were poor and muddy, and the tourists were well splattered with mud when they arrive.
The severest test was Foster's Hill, a severe 12 per cent climb. Several machines went into the side ditches in an effort to clear some that were stalled. In many instances it was necessary for the riders to get out and push the cars up the incline.
The correct name for this proceedure is Hooning.
At least this time, the NYT isn't helping lie about war, just a car.
Ironically though, both lies helped Big Oil.
Sorry, that should be read as a half tank being between 6 and 7 gallons of fuel; the entire tank is somewhere between 12 and 13 gallons.
Palm trees and 8
you pull-into one of those fancy 1-hour charge stations and there are four cars in line ahead of you each needing a 1-hour charge????
All's well if you are the only rich guy in the county with one of these, but there's a lot here that seems not well planned, and while I'll admit somebody might be asking these questions while doing their reports and reviews, I seem to have missed it.
I've read that this trip normally takes about 7-8 hours. How long did it take with the hour+ recharge stops? I wouldn't buy an electric car until the range and the recharge time is improved.
I suppose the nice thing about these SuperCharger stations is that there isn't any waiting since so few people are buying EVs. I wonder how long it will take for these to start being vandalized or being used to power other things.
The only issue with Tesla is the absurd price.
I am a fan of Tesla's business plan.
Start out making a toy for rich people. Low volume high cost production, make an expensive toy, make a profit and learn.
Then make a more-affordable car for upper-middle-class and above. Higher volume lower cost production, make a car that fits in the luxury car category like high-end BMW, make a profit and learn.
Next, they plan to make an even-more-affordable care that middle-class can afford. Using everything they have learned, make a car that is inexpensive enough that there is a chance the middle class will buy it.
Two decades from now, if they continue this, they may be competing with Ford and Honda. And good for them if the can make it.
Right now, it just isn't possible for them to make an electric car that they can sell for the cost of a Honda Accord. They could make something that they could sell at that price, but not a no-compromises all-around car, which is what they want to sell.
I think Tesla has accepted some government loans or grants, but mostly they are just following a plan that makes money, and I approve of that. They are selling outstanding electric cars today, and making a profit; and they have plans to get the cost down in the future.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Probably never.