The Eastern Front Musk Mirrors Napoleon

Consumer Reports bought a Tesla Model S and took delivery last month.  Of course they never told Elon they were doing this and they bought the car using an alias.  I wonder why Elon is not crying to Bloomberg and CNBC that Consumer Reports is faking it?  I guess Elon decided that fighting one Eastern front with the NYT was enough.

Consumer Reports provided an article that “Winter chills limit range of Tesla model S”.     The model S had a range of approximately 180 miles per consumer reports with the day time temperature of 45 degrees F and night temperature at 30 degrees F.  Remember poor John Broder drove in temps that were 30 degrees F daytime high and 10 degrees F at night.  The Consumer Reports car also had the all glass panoramic roof option.

Consumer Reports showed in their article the model S achieved an energy usage of 0.381 kilowatt hours per mile.  Very similar to but a little higher than what Broder achieved using the logs Elon surreptitiously collected during Broder’s test drive.  The data Consumer Reports provided show that the car travelled 176.6 miles using 67.3 kilowatt hours.  The reporter stated he had charged the car as fully as Tesla allows in cold weather and had zero miles of range for the last three miles of his trip back to the office.  He also turned off the climate control and said “anxiety” kept him warm.

Today Elon told the world  "The Tesla team and I are brainstorming this week how to correct the misperception that they have created in the market about how well our car performs in cold weather," he wrote. "That too, will take money and time."

Elon you simply need to agree that in the cold winter of many cities in the USA, Canada, Europe, China, and Japan the range of the vehicle is severely reduced and the idea of a panoramic full glass roof is a massively dumb option for folks who live in areas where temperatures go sub-freezing.  This is no “misperception” this is reality.  Elon the other reality is that you are again out of working capital.  You may think all your sweet talking will save the company but your balance sheet stinks and you need a massive equity infusion.

It is quite amazing how closely Musk has a face that looks like Napoleon.  Perhaps John Broder looks like Wellington?