Tesla brands Model S review 'fake'

When Top Gear tested the Tesla Roadster all those years ago, you could say that things between Tesla and the BBC ended up getting little tense - with the manufacturer eventually (and unsuccessfully) suing the broadcaster over its representation of the car.

Now Tesla, or more importantly boss Elon Musk, has again kicked off in defence of its EVs' range - this time branding a review of its Model S in the New York Times as 'fake'.
Mr Musk, the former founder of Paypal, took to Twitter to slam claims by the writer John Broder that the car ran out of power sooner than expected on a winter's day.

Mr Musk tweeted: "NYTimes article about Tesla range in cold is fake." The NYT responded, by defending its article saying Mr Musk's claim was "flatly untrue".

Tesla predicts a range of 265 miles for the particular Model S tested by Broder, and say that in some cases the mode should travel further than 300. Mr Musk therefore claims that the reviewer didn't fully charge the car and "took a long detour".

According to a report on the BBC website, a statement responding to Mr Musk from the NYT said: "Mr Broder's review was completely factual, describing the trip as it occurred. Any suggestion that the account was 'fake' is, of course, flatly untrue.

"There was no unreported detour."

Despite the widely understood idea that EV batteries' ranges tend to shrink in the cold weather, Musk is apparently preparing a blog detailing what actually happened and had plans to get other journalists to do the same trip.

We'll be watching this situation with interest.