Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

Good luck with that Musk. Unless of course the logs actually show that NYT reporter made up his story without full disclosure of all his travels.

 

Stopping in Manhattan is not the quickest way from DC to Boston.

It would be very foolish of a writer to write something like that without having everything done by the book, but it would also be very unwise in a PR sense to argue back when you are wrong.

I have a feeling this story is not finished.

 

He was not going to Boston if you read the story. He was going to Milford Ct, He made it but had to turn off the heat and drive the NJ turnpike at 50 MPH to preserve power.

Something simple seemed very complex in a Tesla. You could get from DC to Milford in a junker driving 70 mph all the way and have plenty of heat and not have to stop for an hour along the way to recharge your battery.

 

The lede...

Washington — Having established a fast-charging foothold in California for its electric cars, Tesla Motors has brought its formula east, opening two ultrafast charging stations in December that would, in theory, allow a speedy electric-car road trip between here and Boston.

 

Two months ago, Auto-every-other-week had a slight charging issue with a Tesla.
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121210/carnews/121219982

 

Musk's handling of the NYT story is a textbook example of how NOT to handle tech PR.

The Tesla is using a lot of brand-new technology. It's reasonable to expect that there'll be flaws, and that it'll work differently than existing technology. The story indicated that this was basically what Tesla reps said to the NYT reporter.

Tesla's response needed to be, "Yeah, we found some glitches, our dev team is working on them now and we'll and release a 1.1 version next month." And then nothing until next month. Even if the NYT was wrong or exaggerated the issues (both of which are highly unlikely), it would serve Tesla far better to do some more testing, come up with a system to deal with the (thoroughly expected) problems with drawing large amounts of electricity from a battery in cold weather, and then announce next month that those solutions have been implemented. The positive buzz this would create would far outweigh any damage done by the NYT story. Again, reasonable people expect that new technology is going to be glitchy.

Musk's going on the offensive is going to simply draw more attention to the nearly half-billion dollars of public money that his company has buzzed through. The last thing he needs is to turn public sentiment against him. The automotive press has declared the Tesla Model S a home run. He doesn't seem to realize how far ahead of the game he actually is. His response to the NYT indicates to me that he and his company are feeling a bit desperate, which doesn't bode well at all for Tesla's future.

 

I disagree.

If this reporter took a joy ride around Manhattan and subsequently ran out of juice, I would call him out on it. He trashes the product in the story.

But I would only call them out if I had stone cold proof that he did.

 

Did you even read The Times story?

If you are going to spend $100,000 on a car you should be able to drive it where you want and not have to worry that each extra mile is going to you stranded without power.

The fact that this car actually ran out of juice on the highway makes you wonder how these cars will do in metro areas with a lot of traffic during rush hour.

 

I'll be interested to see the drive data that Tesla publishes.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22567808/teslas-stock-dips-after-negative-review-its-model

Some analysts doubted the bad review would hurt Tesla over the long term. Elaine Kwei, of Jefferies & Co., said in a report that she still rates Tesla stock a buy.

"After digging into the background behind the article," she wrote, "our conclusion is that operator error likely played a primary role, due to improper charging protocol."

 

I want Tesla to succeed. I want the Volt to succeed. I want charging outlets at every parking space in my apartment complex, and I want to be able to drive a relatively non-polluting, high performance car. Given time and reasonable expectations, I think it can happen. I think Tesla, particularly, has been given plenty of both.

A company that sees opportunities in its failures -- say, Apple -- succeeds. A company whose leader whines like a petulant baby and screams "CONSPIRACY!" when a review is less than glowing is doomed.

 

A CEO has every right to complain if he believes his product is misrepresented in a review because of shoddy work.

Musk suggested a conspiracy? Where did you read that?