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Filed under: Convertible, Performance, Government/Legal, UK, Tesla, Electric
Tesla and the company's lawyers are nothing if not determined. After a judge smacked down the electric vehicle manufacturer's
libel suit against the BBC and
Top Gear for comments made about the range of the
Tesla Roadster, the automaker rallied with a second, amended lawsuit. It didn't take long for the the same judge to nix the new case, too, saying the amendment was "not capable of being defamatory at all, or, if it is, it is not capable of being a sufficiently serious defamatory meaning to constitute a real and substantial tort."
That sound? It's the smack of the judicial backhand.
The judge went on to say drivers know a manufacturer's claim about range is dependent on driving conditions and habits.
The dustup, as you may recall, began when
Top Gear put the Tesla Roadster through its paces on the show's test track. While
Jeremy Clarkson lauded the car's acceleration, the segment claimed the vehicle ran out of juice after just 55 miles of abuse. That figure is far south of the 200 mile range Tesla claims for the vehicle.
CEO Elon Musk called the show "completely phony" not long after the segment aired and brought out the legal guns. The rest, as they say, is history.
Tesla libel suit against Top Gear fails again originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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February 24th, 2012
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Filed under: Convertible, Tesla, Electric
Yesterday's
outrageous attack on electric vehicles didn't come from the GOP (for a change), but
from a seemingly disinterested blogger, one Michael Degusta. His charges against
Tesla include suggesting that its cars will have "eventual, inevitable, catastrophic battery failure," lambasting the company for poor warranty service, accusing Tesla of tracking its owners without consent, and intimating that the company is not only failing to provide owners with proper notice of this phenomenon but also covering up the whole sordid affair. Serious stuff, this post of his that's rippled through the automotive web with the force of a 185-kW electric motor.
Yet all may not be what it seems. Late yesterday, an e-mail surfaced on Green Car Reports, in which a disgruntled owner who bricked his battery pleads his case to Tesla CEO
Elon Musk. The e-mail, sent by one Max Drucker, CEO of Santa Barbara-based Social Intelligence Corp, is a clear plea for assistance in the repair of his car. Drucker identifies his car as Roadster #340, the same car that serves as the primary example in Degusta's piece. Drucker has since spoken with Autopia about his car, admitting that he drove his Roadster down to a 25 percent charge, then left it parked for six weeks, something
the owner's manual specifically warns against.
Now, let's turn our attention towards Degusta, who noted at the end of his screed, "No one has paid me to write this article" and pointed out that his blog is not advertising-supported. That's an important point, as it's clearly designed to give readers the impression that Degusta is an unbiased outsider, something of a modern-day Upton Sinclair, defending the poor, innocent owners of $100,000 sports cars from the uncaring electric car company and its billionaire co-founder.
Yet, a few minutes spent with Google shows that Drucker and Degusta are also business partners, having registered at least four corporations together in California,
according to Corporationwiki. It also turns up
this article, from the November 15, 2000, issue of
Insurance & Technology magazine, a profile of Drucker, in which he is quoted describing Degusta as his "partner in crime." Indeed, we wonder if the
famously litigious Tesla might be considering another libel lawsuit against this muckraking duo.
Tesla bricked battery story may have a short circuit originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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February 23rd, 2012
Amidst the
Tesla battery problem, comes news of a judgment from the UK courts
again dismissing Tesla Motors' complaints and reiterating that
Top Gear did nothing libelous or maliciously false in the program's review of the Tesla Roadster.
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February 23rd, 2012
Tesla Motors' response to this morning's revelation that
Tesla Roadsters carry a devastating design problem that could lead to the cars becoming "bricked" — i.e. so drained of battery power they are unusable and require a $40,000 replacement — has been to insinuate that the problem was with the owners and not the car.
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February 22nd, 2012
Filed under: Convertible, Performance, Safety, Technology, Tesla, Electric
Here's a new worry for electric car owners: bricking your new, expensive ride.
Using a word
taken from the computer world, to "brick" an EV means to make your electronic device inoperable. In the case of an EV, it would mean to run the battery state of charge so far down that nothing works anymore, thus requiring an expensive flatbed tow and an even more expensive battery pack - about $40,000 in a
Tesla Roadster.
This is
the charge of Michael Degusta, who wrote a detailed post on the matter in which he claims there have been five cases of Roadsters being bricked that he knows about. Since this is the first we've heard about it (and we imagine all those Silicon Valley Roadster owners know a thing or two about Internet communication), we're surprised we didn't hear about this before the alleged problem claimed five non-working cars. Thus, we figure there's more to the story, especially since some people are
already poking holes in some of Degusta's statements. We've emailed Degusta and asked him to provide further proof of and details about these bricked cars, but he has not responded yet.
For its part, Tesla has offered AutoblogGreen a fairly noncommittal statement on the matter:
All automobiles require some level of owner care. For example, combustion vehicles require regular oil changes or the engine will be destroyed. Electric vehicles should be plugged in and charging when not in use for maximum performance. All batteries are subject to damage if the charge is kept at zero for long periods of time. However, Tesla avoids this problem in virtually all instances with numerous counter-measures. Tesla batteries can remain unplugged for weeks (even months), without reaching zero state of charge. Owners of Roadster 2.0 and all subsequent Tesla products can request that their vehicle alert Tesla if SOC falls to a low level. All Tesla vehicles emit various visual and audible warnings if the battery pack falls below 5 percent SOC. Tesla provides extensive maintenance recommendations as part of the customer experience.
It's also true that all vehicles will require some attention if they sit unused too long, and people know what happens if you leave your laptop unplugged for two weeks. In the owner's manual for the Roadster 2.0/Roadster Sport, Tesla does say that "Over-discharge can permanently damage the Battery" and that "If storing for more than 15 days, it is strongly recommended that you keep it plugged in" (see the full section on "Leaving the vehicle unplugged" after the jump, or download the manual
in PDF here), but it doesn't specify what sort of damage that is, or how expensive it might be to fix it. Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes did tell AutoblogGreen that he is working to demystify the situation and will get back to us with more information.
Continue reading Tesla Roadster facing 'brick' battery problems?
Tesla Roadster facing 'brick' battery problems? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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February 22nd, 2012
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Tesla Bricking
Tesla Motors' lineup of all-electric vehicles — its existing
Roadster, almost certainly its impending
Model S, and possibly its future
Model X — apparently suffer from a severe limitation that can largely destroy the value of the vehicle. If the battery is ever totally discharged, the owner is left with what Tesla describes as a "brick": a completely immobile vehicle that cannot be started or even pushed down the street. The only known remedy is for the owner to pay Tesla approximately $40,000 to replace the entire battery. Unlike practically every other modern car problem, neither Tesla's warranty nor typical car insurance policies provide any protection from this major financial loss. Here's how it happens.
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February 22nd, 2012
