The maverick CEO and Tesla co-founder intends to purchase $100 million worth of common stock announced as being made available for public sale today and expected to raise about $830 million for the company. Plans are also to use some of the proceeds to pay off Energy Department loans in full with interest.

In recent days, TSLA stock has been on fire rising from below $50 per share just a couple weeks ago to $84.84 today.

The 2,703,027-share public offering will consist of a $450 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2018 in concurrent underwritten registered public offerings plus there is a 30-day option to buy an additional 405,454 shares of common stock and $67.5 million in aggregate principal amount of the notes

The proceeds will go toward paying the cost of convertible hedge note transactions and general corporate purposes, and and of course, Tesla will be free from $465 million in indebtedness to Uncle Sam.

Of the approximately one-eighth of the total sale Musk will personally purchase, $45 million would be in common stock, and approximately $55 million would be bought directly from Tesla in a subsequent private placement due to the waiting period requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.

The post Musk To Buy $100M From $830M Stock Offering; Tesla Will Pay Off Government Loans appeared first on HybridCars.com.

“Self-driving cars are the natural extension of active safety and obviously something we should do,” Musk said in an interview published yesterday by Automotive News.

Even though a car has no actual pilot, Musk said he liked the positive connotations better from a metaphorical co-opting of the aerospace term to automotive technology, and found it preferable to Google’s words describing driverless technology.

“I like the word autopilot more than I like the word self- driving,” Musk said in the interview. “Self-driving sounds like it’s going to do something you don’t want it to do. Autopilot is a good thing to have in planes, and we should have it in cars.”

Where Tesla would also innovate is the technology itself. Musk said the Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) system used by Google would be “too expensive.”

Its expenses include a sensor system which Musk sees a cost-effective way around with technology that can accomplish the same task.

“It’s better to have an optical system, basically cameras with software that is able to figure out what’s going on just by looking at things,” said Musk. “I think Tesla will most likely develop its own autopilot system for the car, as I think it should be camera-based, not Lidar-based,” Musk said Monday via e-mail, adding, “However, it is also possible that we do something jointly with Google.”

Google did not offer comment for the story, and further, Musk said “we’re not focused on autopilot right now,” but he indicated it has received plenty of thought already.

A higher priority for now is to bring down the cost of the Tesla cars themselves, including within the next few years, new models reaching down to the $30,000 range.

Automotive News

The post Tesla Eyes ‘Autopilot’ For Its Cars appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Tesla said this makes it the highest resale value of any premium sedan brand made in volume (excludes rare, low volume or limited edition vehicles).

Buying a Model S through the Tesla financing offering now comes with a guarantee that the resale value will be higher than that of BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Lexus or Jaguar.

Tesla also said that to protect people that have already purchased a Model S via this program, the guarantee will extend retroactively to anyone that made use of Tesla financing, created in partnership with US Bank and Wells Fargo, from when it was first announced on April 2, 2013.

As with the prior resale guarantee, this higher number is also backed personally by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to give owners complete peace of mind about the long term value of the product.

“We appreciate the feedback from a number of journalists and customers that the first version of our financing product wasn’t quite right,” said Tesla Co-founder & CEO Elon Musk. “They were right, so we are fixing it and, moreover, upping the ante by providing the best resale value guarantee in the automotive industry. The Model S is rated by Motor Trend, Automobile Magazine and many others as the best car of 2013, so it should naturally therefore have the highest resale value.”

Tesla’s financing partners have also agreed to provide longer term loans that reduce the monthly payment considerably.

Accordingly, those who buy the Model S electric car for personal use will now pay a monthly rate of $580 taking only gasoline savings into account.

When purchased via a business, assuming 70 percent of miles are for business use, the depreciation benefit further reduces the effective monthly cost of owning a Model S down to $315.

The post Tesla’s Model S Resale Value Raised; Lower Monthly Payments appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Should Model S customers need servicing for any issue, the $600 per year package entitles them to have as close to an “invisible” service experience as possible, Tesla says.

The company will valet a premo Model S or Roadster – to customers – regardless what level and options of Model S they may have.

Saying that “the world’s best” cars ought to get “the world’s best service and warranty program,” CEO Elon Musk laid out points regarding the plan.

The company is building a small fleet of 85-kwh Model S Performance loaners and will also make available in most locations Roadster loaners, and other provisions are included.

And, if while they are at it customers decide they like the Model S loaner better, they can just trade their existing Model S in at a pro-rated difference.

“The loaners will be available for immediate purchase at a price that is lower by 1 percent per month of age and $1 per mile,” said Tesla today in a follow-up blog post. “If you like the service loaner more than your other car, you can just keep it. This ensures that the service fleet is constantly refreshed and gives customers the best optionality.”

As time goes on, Musk said Tesla expects cars it takes in on trade will add to a growing inventory of used Teslas for sale as is the case already for pre-owned Roadsters the company offers.

Of course, if customers merely want to get their existing car back, no problem. The idea is not being portrayed as a means to upsell, in fact Musk said something that flies radically in the face of traditional dealership service models.

“What I’ve told the Tesla Service Division is their job is never to make a profit,” Musk said.

Investors may get “mad” hearing this, Musk said, but the service model he says Tesla is aiming for should be run to the “zero profit point.”

Musk contends service is best if it is painless as possible, and he wants to “minimize not maximize” the cost of any service.

This said, the all-electric cars do not need customary servicing like gas or diesel vehicles, and so, the service policy may not even be used unless a major issue crops up, like with the battery or electronics.

“As such, we are comfortable making the annual checkup entirely optional,” said Tesla. “There is still value to having Tesla look at the car once a year for things like tire alignment, to address a few things here & there and perform any hardware upgrades – our goal is not just to fix things, but to make the car better than it was. However, even if you never bring in the car, your warranty is still valid.”

On the other hand, if the battery or electronics have an issue, Musk said this would be a no-fault thing, and Tesla would not snivel if the owner failed even to have taken minimal steps to become familiarized with the vehicle’s operations and care.

“The intent is to provide complete peace of mind about owning your Model S even if you never read or followed the instructions in the manual,” said Tesla.

Unlike the Roadsters which had a “bricking” problem known to be possible, the Model S is designed to be more fool-proof, so if something goes wrong inside the standard 8-year warranty period, Tesla will cover it, Musk said.

He said Tesla will fix a warranted battery as needed, and if this happens a few years from now, and there happens to be an updated battery available, there may be some leeway in upgrading at that point, it was implied.

Exceptions to the warranty would be such as from collision damage, intentional abuse, or if the battery pack had been opened by non-Tesla personnel.

Musk said the customer-centric program was as close to a dream policy as they could make it. He said he and Tesla designed its provisions putting themselves in customers’ shoes, imagining what they would want in an ideal arrangement if they were the customer.

Showing Itself Smart

While Tesla is bold enough to say its cars are the world’s best, Tesla is never so arrogant as to come out and declare something like “we are smarter,” yet smarter it is potentially showing itself to be.

Is it any wonder auto dealership associations are fighting Tesla’s unorthodox retail store and service center infiltration into their domain, and in cases looking at Tesla like the incarnation of the devil himself?

Talk about upsetting the old way of doing things.

Musk said he tells his service centers not to try and make a profit. He said Tesla is making scant profits selling the cars at this point too.

Of course Tesla is most definitely in business for profit, but how it is aiming to go about achieving this is altogether different.

Traditional dealerships have disparagingly been called “stealerships” by some, and in any case, back-end profits from parts and service are big business to help make up for thin margins perceived from the initial car sale.

Over the years, while many traditional dealerships have made loyal customers who value the relationship, in other cases some dealerships have engendered no love among people who have felt less than valued, if not overcharged or outright burned.

Further, the relationship between salespeople and customer, while typically marked with smiles and surface cordiality, can often behind the scenes be seen as an adversarial affair marked by ambivalence on both sides of the table.

Musk and Tesla are making big efforts to destroy this paradigm.

He said his agenda is not a short-term gain in sales, but long-term loyalty, ostensibly by earning it by maximizing the quality of the service experience.

Reporters today asked Musk what drove him to make the decision – was it knowledge of looming problems he wanted to pre-empt? Was it knowledge of current issues he wanted to head off at the pass?

Surely there have been some issues, but Musk said so far not one battery has failed at the module or cell level, and his goal was planting seeds of long-term buyer trust.

“We want to say ‘just don’t worry about the battery, its going to be fine,’” he told reporters in characterizing the spirit of intent behind Tesla’s motives.

Consumers today are naturally concerned with the expensive battery pack that, being new technology, is due to sooner or later be updated. Jumping into the EV waters does make many people take pause, especially at the $70,000-$110,000-plus prices Tesla is charging for its first sedan.

It would appear Tesla is positioning itself for an above-Mercedes-Benz-level experience, and says it wants to soften the way to the point of being no cause for fear.

Musk said he’d been preoccupied until recently with car design, supply chain, and other issues with launching the Model S, and now has turned his attention to ownership and service issues for Tesla’s growing customer base.

Of course, it all comes at a price, so the program is really like being well insured. It does not guaranty nothing will go wrong, but it is intended to make it as easy as possible should anything need attending to.

Customers who opt in will not need to sit around a dealership listening to air-impact tools ratcheting away in the service bays, with a TV and stale coffee to keep them company.

Instead they get to stay home with a top-line loaner delivered to their door for any reason they need their car looked at.

As for whether this will apply to the Model X and future cars, Musk said Tesla has that as an “aspirational” goal, but would not commit unequivocally that it will.

He said to lower its costs, Tesla may need to bundle out some of the services, but did leave open the possibility the same program could be had in the future for pending models.

The post Tesla Announces ‘World’s Best’ Service Program appeared first on HybridCars.com.

On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk answered via Twitter that he was “deeply wounded.”

The exchange via social media outlets has been seen by thousands of eyeballs, and as of 12:30 a.m. ET, March 10, Palin’s long post had 33,383 “likes” and 2,984 comments.

Update: at 1 a.m., two comments had been removed and the tally was 33,386 likes, and 2,982 comments.

In saying what she did, Palin echoed Mitt Romney’s epithet of choice used last year while campaigning, as the following excerpt of Palin’s words reveals:

“This losing tax-subsidized venture joins other past losers like the Obama-subsidized Volt that gets 40 miles per battery charge, or like the Obama-subsidized Tesla that turns into a “brick” when the battery completely discharges and then costs $40,000 to repair,” wrote Palin. “This is really just the latest manifestation of the administration’s crony capitalism as their green energy buddies benefit from this atrocious waste of taxpayer money.”

Following is the post in its entirety:

Palin’s whole post.

In response, Musk linked an article in his tweet that said simply:

“Sarah Palin calls Tesla a loser. Am deeply wounded. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/07/sarah-palin-echoes-romney-tesla-motors-losers-who-build-bricks/ … Btw, Model S warranty does cover ‘bricking.’”

Musk’s brief reply that did not counter-attack or accuse, though he might have, has netted him 493 retweets so far.

It’s also true that while Tesla did accept $465 million as a low-interest federal loan, plans are to pay the government back within five years.

The Tesla Roadster and Model S have been awarded by several top publications and other organizations.

Despite costing upwards of $70,000 to well over that, the Model S was the top-selling plug-in vehicle last quarter with 4,750 units sold, and the second-place sales finisher in January, February, and March against cars costing half as much.

Its sales results let the company become profitable last quarter as it beat expectations.

Whether Tesla was the best choice to call a loser and proof against “crony capitalism” is in question.

Perhaps Musk thought the facts speak for themselves; or perhaps he thought the more graceful answer was the one he gave.

At other times, he has entered into an escalating war of words, such as with the New York Times’ John Broder when he gave a negative review Musk said was a “fake.”

We won’t speculate as to why the spirit of the response seemed different this time but will just note that it did.

The post Musk ‘Deeply Wounded’ By Sarah Palin’s Words appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Tomorrow Musk plans to attend a Texas House committee meeting to support Tesla-backed legislation that could allow the company to do business the way it wishes, and free it from present laws now putting it in a stranglehold.

To raise support, Musk has tweeted followers asking for them to publicly rally and otherwise show solidarity, and his internal memo titled “Subject: Winning in Texas” had some choice wording not meant to be publicly aired:

• “The Texas auto dealer association is trying to stop us from selling cars in the state and they have way more money and power than we do with legislators, so we need to rally the people pronto to stop them from winning.”
• “If the people of Texas knew how bad this was, they would be up in arms, because they are getting ripped off by the auto dealers as a result (not saying they are all bad – there are a few good ones, but many are extremely heinous).”
• “For everyone in Texas that ever got screwed by an auto dealer, this is your opportunity for payback.”

A Tesla spokesperson confirmed to Automotive News the e-mail was from Musk, saying “unfortunately” the memo was not meant to be seen by other than Tesla personnel.

The issue at hand is by now a fairly familiar one: Presently, Tesla is hamstrung by Texas franchise laws preventing it from discussing price or servicing its own cars in Texas. The Texas Automobile Dealers Association opposes legislation endorsed by Tesla to the contrary, and says allowing it to pass will hurt dealers and consumers.

Regarding the accusatory e-mail by Musk, the Texas dealer association’s general counsel, Karen Phillips, said it was “inappropriate” and said Texas lawmakers should see past popular support Musk and company are trying to rouse and focus on issues at hand.

“We know he’s incorrect, and we know that name calling is not constructive,” Phillips said. “It shows the type of person we’re dealing with.”

Last week four Texas dealers including the Texas association’s chairman argued against Tesla-shaped proposed legislation saying that Tesla is trying to create a monopoly for itself with a revision to the Senate bill’s language.

The proposed changes to the law would allow an exemption only for current U.S.-owned makers of electric vehicles that have never before sold through franchised dealers. This narrow language was said by Tesla’s vice president of business development Diarmuid O’Connell to open the way for Tesla to do business and allay concerns that foreign makers could later follow shielded by the same franchise law exemptions.

O’Connell decried “gymnastics” Tesla customers in Texas have to go through that are “expensive, time-consuming and just ridiculous.”

The way the law is now structured, Tesla staffers at its Houston and Austin galleries are forbidden to talk about pricing or take orders.

To buy a Tesla in Texas, consumers must contact Tesla representatives outside of Texas, and the same is true of having Tesla approve warranty repairs or service.

While the virtual shootout of words and wills in Texas is among the most poignant, it is only the latest in a series of confrontations in which Tesla has found itself against both the National Automobile Dealers Association and various state-level auto dealers associations.

In short, dealer associations have seen their franchise model threatened, and have tried to tighten franchise laws to oppose Tesla’s retail store model.

In turn, Tesla has aggressively pursued lobbying with policymakers and to rouse its supporters to its cause.

In Minnesota last month Tesla scored a win – that may only be temporary – as the state dealer association withdrew support from a bill that would have stopped Tesla from operating stores in that state.

Similarly, Tesla is facing lawsuits by dealers in New York and Massachusetts and the Massachusetts state dealer association and Tesla are backing two separate bills that pertain to Tesla factory owned stores in that state.

Tesla has faced opposition of one form or another also in Oregon, Colorado, and in fact franchise laws in 48 states have not particularly smiled to one degree or another upon the maverick company’s retail store model based in part on how Apple operates its retail stores.

In response, Tesla has continued on a case-by-case basis to do what it can to pursue its agenda to revolutionize not just automobiles but how they are marketed and distributed.

At the core is a threat to the established way of doing business, and dealer associations have argued manufacturers should stick to manufacturing and leave the sales end of it to franchisees.

Obviously, much money rides on this decision. Both sides have argued the consumer is best served by their respective take on how things should be done. Whether this is the truth, and where the balance lies, is in debate, and bottom-line profits are riding on these questions.

By cutting out the middleman, Tesla does stand to control the sale, and take what profits it can in the sale. In question is whether it shrinks the bottom line by reducing mark-ups dealers might impose. If it does win out, in question also is whether in the future Tesla might have an unfair advantage and control all profits as dealer associations contend.

These profits are what dealers have traditionally counted upon, and dealer associations in general do not like the precedent being set, and aim to nip it in the bud even if Tesla is yet a small organization that only just became profitable last quarter.

Last October, in a statement, Montana dealer and NADA Chairman Bill Underriner said Tesla would need to learn the error of its ways.

“Tesla may not yet recognize the value of the independent, franchised dealer system, but as its sales increase, NADA is confident it will re-examine its business model,” said Underriner. “Other companies such as Daewoo did. All companies should be complying with existing laws in the same way dealers are required to.”

Tesla store locations.

In public, Tesla typically phrases its intent in benign language.

“Tesla is revolutionizing the auto purchasing experience. Unlike traditional car dealerships, Tesla said in a previous statement, “Tesla stores are designed to be stylish and inviting.”

And Tesla’s previous statements by its VP George Blankenship regarding dealer association opposition indicates Tesla is determined.

“We do what we’re capable of doing, and we do whatever they let us do,” said Blankenship. “It’s unique for each location. If we can’t be a dealer in a mall, we won’t do reservations on-site. We tell people where to go on our Web site to make a reservation.”

Elon Musk’s latest statements add a moral and ethical dimension to Tesla’s protracted battle against the establishment.

He phrased Tesla’s intent as being part of a righteous cause against “heinous” opponents, and among other things said, “For everyone in Texas that ever got screwed by an auto dealer, this is your opportunity for payback.”

But the opponents appear determined also, and this story is far from over.

The next episode will be tomorrow in Texas.

The post Musk Blasts Texas Auto Dealers Opposing Tesla Store Model appeared first on HybridCars.com.

This he said in an interview with Bloomberg of an e-mail sent in March to customers who’d only gone so far in reserving a Model S. The e-mail was said to be almost pushing them to complete the sale so Tesla could reach a “huge company milestone.”

The problem was, Musk said, Tesla Motors had not approved the letter, and this news comes just after Tesla has reported it first-ever profitable quarter this year.

“Some of our sales folks got a little overzealous and sent out the e-mail,” said Musk yesterday to Bloomberg. “As soon as I found out, I put an immediate stop to it. That is not how Tesla operates.”

Musk added that the e-mail did not affect the Palo Alto California-based company’s having exceeded its Q1 forecast.

Not one sale of the 4,750-plus Model S orders were counted until three things took place he said. These are that each counted delivery was paid for, delivered, and its paperwork was completed and filed.

“All three of those things must be true,” said Musk. “We had a clear, clean victory in Q1 and I don’t want to sully that with any sense that it was juiced in some way.”

On Monday Tesla’s stock crested 16 percent on the news it was in the black, and the last thing Musk wants is to sully the possibility that the books are being cooked, and he repeated the company has been fastidious in its accounting.

“The only thing that counts is if we’ve sent them the car,” he said. “We are literally bending over backwards and twisting ourselves into a pretzel to make sure that every sale is legitimate.”

Tesla’s latest “huge” announcement on Tuesday that actually was fully endorsed by Musk is the company will try to juice sales in a bona fide manner by offering a creative hybrid structure of a purchase with elements of a lease.

That news did nothing positive for the company’s stock, and it actually fell 2 percent before 10 the following morning in New York.

Ups and downs in the face of a fickle market notwithstanding, Tesla aims to sell 20,000 Model S cars this year and remains one of the top-three sellers of cars that plug in.

It’s a notable achievement given the price of its cars is far above those of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf, the other two major players at this stage of the game.

Bloomberg

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Tesla’s blog post was bylined by Elon Musk and insinuated Broder demonstrated a lack of common sense and wonton attempts to show the Model S could not make a cold-weather journey.

No such thing is true, said Broder, who answered Musk’s bullet points yesterday right down the line, in order, furthering the stand-off between the two influential entities – Tesla and the Times.

Since last week, Broder had previously answered for his report based on initial tweets by Musk and subsequent comments to media that Broder’s purportedly failed journey was “a fake.”

Musk had immediately said Tesla had the data to prove it was faked as the Model S is equipped with data logging devices since the last time “journalists” for Top Gear in the UK did make up a false script showing a Roadster having to be pushed to the charger.

Electric vehicles are in general being weighed by the public, and have many detractors, some of whom have shown themselves to have questionable motives, ethics, and conflicts of interest.

As the seller of a single model of car that starts just shy of $60,000 and that is subsidized by taxpayer money and that rapidly rises in price to as much as double the starting price when including all costs, taxes, and tags, Tesla has been on the defensive following Broder’s evaluation.

As the marketer for these cars, Tesla has wanted to prove the bona fide EV revolution is here, now, aims to introduce down-market electric cars after a very positive reception of its premium sedan. Broder’s report throws what some have seen as a wet blanket on the represented capability of Tesla’s engineering and Supercharger stations.

For his part, Broder said the entire cold-weather trip was proposed by Tesla, he did all in good faith, and implied nothing in his 16 years at the Times in various high-level positions would suggest he had a bias or axe to grind.

Broder has been a White House correspondent, Washington editor and Los Angeles Bureau chief and political correspondent during his years at the Times. Since 2009, he has been the Washington bureau reporter covering energy, environment and climate change, so he was the ideal candidate for the job, but Tesla has not liked his findings one bit, and has responded with accusations, impugning Broder’s integrity.

Point / Counterpoint

You can read Broder’s entire lengthy rebuttal to Musk here, but as we did for Tesla, without commentary, we’ll post Broder’s point-by-point answers following:

• “As the State of Charge log shows, the Model S battery never ran out of energy at any time, including when Broder called the flatbed truck.”
 
The car’s display screen said the car was shutting down, and it did. The car did not have enough power to move, or even enough to release the electrically operated parking brake. The tow truck driver was on the phone with Tesla’s New York service manager, Adam Williams, for 15 or 20 minutes as he was trying to move the car onto a flatbed truck.

• “The final leg of his trip was 61 miles and yet he disconnected the charge cable when the range display stated 32 miles. He did so expressly against the advice of Tesla personnel and in obvious violation of common sense.”
The Tesla personnel whom I consulted over the phone – Ms. Ra and Mr. Merendino – told me to leave it connected for an hour, and after that the lost range would be restored. I did not ignore their advice.

• “In his article, Broder claims that ‘the car fell short of its projected range on the final leg.’ Then he bizarrely states that the screen showed ‘Est. remaining range: 32 miles’ and the car traveled ‘51 miles’ contradicting his own statement (see images below). The car actually did an admirable job exceeding its projected range. Had he not insisted on doing a nonstop 61-mile trip while staring at a screen that estimated half that range, all would have been well. He constructed a no-win scenario for any vehicle, electric or gasoline.”
 
The phrase “the car fell short of its projected range” appeared in a caption with an accompanying map; it was not in the article. What that referred to (and admittedly could have been more precise) was that the car fell short of the projected range, 90 miles, that it showed when I parked it overnight at a hotel in Groton, Conn.

Tesla is correct that the car did exceed the projected range of 32 miles when I left Norwich, as I was driving slowly, and it gave me hope that the Tesla employee I’d consulted was correct that the mileage lost overnight was being restored. It wasn’t enough, however, to get to Milford.

• “On that leg, he drove right past a public charge station while the car repeatedly warned him that it was very low on range.”
 
If there was a public charging station nearby, no one made me aware of it. The Tesla person with whom I was in contact located on the Internet a public charging station in East Haven, Conn., and that is the one I was trying to reach when the car stalled in Branford, about five miles shy of East Haven.

• “Cruise control was never set to 54 m.p.h. as claimed in the article, nor did he limp along at 45 m.p.h. Broder in fact drove at speeds from 65 m.p.h. to 81 m.p.h. for a majority of the trip, and at an average cabin temperature setting of 72 F.”
 
I drove normally (at the speed limit or with prevailing traffic) when I thought it was prudent to do so. I do recall setting the cruise control to about 54 m.p.h., as I wrote. The log shows the car traveling about 60 m.p.h. for a nearly 100-mile stretch on the New Jersey Turnpike. I cannot account for the discrepancy, nor for a later stretch in Connecticut where I recall driving about 45 m.p.h., but it may be the result of the car being delivered with 19-inch wheels and all-season tires, not the specified 21-inch wheels and summer tires. That just might have affected the recorded speed, range, rate of battery depletion or any number of other parameters. Tesla’s data suggests I was doing slightly more than 50 over a stretch where the speed limit was 65. The traffic was heavy in that part of Connecticut, so cruise control was not usable, and I tried to keep the speed at 50 or below without impeding traffic.

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. Most drivers are aware that cars can speed up, even sometimes when cruise control is engaged, on downhill stretches.

• “At the point in time that he claims to have turned the temperature down, he in fact turned the temperature up to 74 F.”
 
I raised and lowered the cabin heat in an effort to strike a balance between saving energy and staying somewhat comfortable. (It was 30 degrees outside when I began the trip, and the temperature plunged that night to 10 degrees.) Tesla jumped to the conclusion that I claimed to have lowered the cabin temperature “at 182 miles,” but I never wrote that. The data clearly indicates that I sharply lowered the temperature setting – twice – a little over 200 miles into the trip. After the battery was charged I tried to warm the cabin.

• “The charge time on his second stop was 47 minutes, going from —5 miles (reserve power) to 209 miles of Ideal or 185 miles of E.P.A. Rated Range, not 58 minutes as stated in the graphic attached to his article. Had Broder not deliberately turned off the Supercharger at 47 mins and actually spent 58 mins Supercharging, it would have been virtually impossible to run out of energy for the remainder of his stated journey.”
 
According to my notes, I plugged into the Milford Supercharger at 5:45 p.m. and disconnected at 6:43 p.m. The range reading was 185 miles.

• “For his first recharge, he charged the car to 90%. During the second Supercharge, despite almost running out of energy on the prior leg, he deliberately stopped charging at 72%. On the third leg, where he claimed the car ran out of energy, he stopped charging at 28%. Despite narrowly making each leg, he charged less and less each time. Why would anyone do that?”
 
I stopped at 72 percent because I had replenished more than enough energy for the miles I intended to drive the next day before fully recharging on my way back to New York. In Norwich, I charged for an hour on the lower-power charger, expressly on the instructions of Tesla personnel, to get enough range to reach the Supercharger station in Milford.

• “The above helps explain a unique peculiarity at the end of the second leg of Broder’s trip. When he first reached our Milford, Conn., Supercharger, having driven the car hard and after taking an unplanned detour through downtown Manhattan to give his brother a ride, the display said “0 miles remaining.” Instead of plugging in the car, he drove in circles for over half a mile in a tiny, 100-space parking lot. When the Model S valiantly refused to die, he eventually plugged it in. On the later legs, it is clear Broder was determined not to be foiled again.”
 
I drove around the Milford service plaza in the dark looking for the Supercharger, which is not prominently marked. I was not trying to drain the battery. (It was already on reserve power.) As soon as I found the Supercharger, I plugged the car in.

The stop in Manhattan was planned from the beginning and known to Tesla personnel all along. According to Google Maps, taking the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan (instead of crossing at the George Washington Bridge) and driving up the West Side Highway added only two miles to the overall distance from Newark, Del., to Milford, Conn.

Neither I nor the Model S ever visited “downtown Manhattan.”

• “When I first heard about what could at best be described as irregularities in Broder’s behavior during the test drive, I called to apologize for any inconvenience that he may have suffered and sought to put my concerns to rest, hoping that he had simply made honest mistakes. That was not the case.”
 
Mr. Musk not only apologized, he said the charging stations should be 60 miles closer together and offered me a second test drive when additional stations were built.

Now What?

Actually, this has been good for the ratings by media which are – as if it were a secret – motivated by things like page views, Internet hits, advertising revenue – in short, money and profits.

The high-level drama has been good sport, and now CNN is jumping in on the act to very publicly attempt to duplicate Broder’s journey.

It’s a guarantee CNN’s follow-up story will be read, so what can one say? Long live the entrepreneurial spirit that does not miss an opportunity.

Beyond this, Broder does not look as disingenuous as the rogues at Top Gear who played their school boy prank on the upstart Yanks from Silicon Valley.

We shall see where that goes, if it does not just fizzle out as these stories tend to do after the drama, conjecture and loosely formed opinions have played out, and had their day.

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First came the announcement at the beginning of November that the company’s Model S received Automobile of The Year from Automobile magazine. Only a couple weeks later Motor Trend bestowed the Model S with the honor of Car of The Year award.

Now, as he said the company would, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, is reporting the electric carmaker is starting to move from red to black.

In a Twitter post on Monday Musk wrote: “Am happy to report that Tesla was narrowly cash flow positive last week. Continued improvement expected through year end.”

Taken at face value, this is impressive news considering Tesla posted a $111 loss in the third-quarter, and also has to contend with a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy.

However, in that same quarterly report to investors the company said it expects by the end of 2012 “to get approximately halfway to the 25 percent gross margin target” for 2013.

Two awards in the same year from leading car publications can only help to raise the car and company’s public profile, perhaps driving more orders for the Model S, and therefore helping keep Tesla operating in the black.

Tesla also recently announced a $2,500 price increase for the 2013 Model S, but company Vice President, George Blankenship, noted in a company blog post that the price increase is the “first time in four years at only half the rate of inflation.”

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