The controversy over Tesla Motors' Model S vehicle rages on, as the writer responsible for the New York Times' damaging review hits back against accusations that he deliberately tried to waste the car's power.
Journalist John Broder gives a detailed point-by-point refutation of outspoken Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who published data from the trip on Wednesday, Feb. 13. Broder's missive is extremely detailed, but his overall argument is that his actions were guided by Tesla representatives with whom he spent extensive time communicating throughout the road test.
"His broadest charge is that I consciously set out to sabotage the test," he wrote on the NYT's blog Thursday evening Feb. 14. "That is not so. I was delighted to receive the assignment to try out the company's new East Coast Supercharger network and as I previously noted in no way anticipated — or deliberately caused — the troubles I encountered."
One of the more interesting accusations Musk made concerns Broder's attempt to destroy the car's energy : "Instead of plugging in the car, he drove in circles for over half a mile in a tiny, 100-space parking lot."
Broder states that while he was driving around that specific area, he was only "trying to find the unlighted and poorly marked Tesla Supercharger."
The Model S' supercharger stations have come up a couple times throughout this whole fiasco. Musk claims that not only did Broder pass a charging station despite the car repeatedly warning of low range, he also "charged the car less and less" every time he narrowly finished a leg of the trip.
Broder's response is that if he passed any charging station, it was because he didn't know they existed, and Tesla representatives on the phone pointed him to other stations further ahead. As for the short charging durations, he "charged for an hour on the lower-power charger, expressly on the instructions of Tesla personnel."
If anything, the fact that an hour on a "supercharger" isn't enough to sufficiently replenish the vehicle's intended range is probably more damaging to the $100,000 car's future than any review Broder could have written.
Adding another wrinkle to the debate, however, is the fact that CNN journalist Peter Valdes-Dapena successfully repeated Broder's trip with miles to spare. It's likely this won't be the last we hear about the Model S' ability, so stay tuned.
