Here is the CNN article on their DC to Boston trip. Was this the same route as the NYT'S ?
Test drive: DC to Boston in a Tesla Model S - Feb. 15, 2013
First two legs were the same, third leg was Milford to Boston (instead of to a hotel in Groton and back to Milford).
The second leg is the "real" Supercharger test leg, about 200 miles between the Supercharger in Newark and the one in Milford.
Here the CNN team drove 60 - 65 mph, and climate control on 72 F, and arrived with 32 miles remaining. (So in theory enough to drive faster than 65 mph without hitting zero miles at the end, or alternatively, with a standard charge of 90% as Broder did). Outside temps were, according to weather.com, around 38F in Milford, CT between 3 pm and 6 pm.
Whereas Broder claims, in his article,
(
Stalled on the E.V. Highway - NYTimes.com)
to have driven for 68 miles with unspecified speeds using up 85 miles rated range (which alone would not explain his problems), and then to have set the cruise control to 54 mph and the climate control to "low", "my feet were freezing and my knuckles were turning white'. Finally arriving on reserve with zero miles displayed range left. And claiming only a "short break in Manhattan" (in terms of detours). Mentioning "the temperature was still in the 30s" (referring to outside temperatures obviously)
Additional info from his later responses:
In his (first) response to Elon's tweets, he writes:
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The Charges Are Flying Over a Test of Teslas Charging Network - NYTimes.com)
I was at that point 200 miles from the other East Coast Supercharger outlet in Milford, Conn., which I barely reached by driving 10 m.p.h. below the speed limit and turning off the battery-draining cabin-heating system.
Without referring back to the article, this would sound to me as if he drove the whole 200 miles at 10 mph below speed limit, and without heating (and even then reached it only barely).
(According to logs it seems he never turned off climate control, while his article mentions *the car* turned it off when he ran out of range shortly before reaching the second Supercharger).
In regards to detours, he claims only 2 miles:
Mr. Musk has referred to a “long detour” on my trip. He is apparently referring to a brief stop in Manhattan on my way to Connecticut that, according to Google Maps, added precisely two miles to the overall distance traveled from the Delaware Supercharger to Milford (202 miles with the stop versus 200 miles had I taken the George Washington Bridge instead of the Lincoln Tunnel).
Additional statements are in his response to the Tesla's blog with the data logs:
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That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesnt - NYTimes.com)
For example: "Certainly, and as Tesla’s logs clearly show, much of my driving was at or well below the 65 m.p.h. speed limit, with only a single momentary spike above 80."
Again a link to the Tesla blog for the charts:
(
A Most Peculiar Test Drive | Blog | Tesla Motors)
(On the leg between the Superchargers.)
