CR reverses course, now recommends the Model 3
NEW YORK: When Consumer Reports reviewed Tesla Inc’s first mass-market electric car, the Model 3, it concluded that it couldn’t recommend the car to its readers because of “big flaws,” including long stopping distances when braking at high speed.
Within days, Tesla beamed a wireless software update to the Model 3s on the road that improved their braking, and the impact was swift. After testing the car again, Consumer Reports reversed the verdict on Wednesday, only nine days after its original report was published, and gave the car a “recommended” rating.
“To see something updated that quickly is quite remarkable,” said Jake Fisher, the magazine’s director of auto testing.
Other manufacturers have made software fixes to correct issues that Consumer Reports has identified, but owners then have to take their cars to dealers to have the update installed.
“Tesla’s ability to update its cars in much the same way that Apple Inc issues software updates for iPhones is a competitive advantage,’’ Fisher said. “We’ve never seen a manufacturer do this in the course of a week.”
Tesla issued no official statement about the reversed judgment, but its chief executive, Elon Musk, took to Twitter to declare, “Really appreciate the high quality critical feedback from @ConsumerReports.”
He said other flaws identified in the original review were also being addressed.
The reversal gave a bit of good news to Telsa, which is under intense scrutiny as it scrambles to accelerate Model 3 production.
The company was making about 2,000 a week earlier this month, but Musk has said he hopes to reach 5,000 a week by midyear — a level that he says is necessary for Tesla to end its persistent quarterly losses and become profitable in the second half of the year.
Earlier this year, concern about the company’s ability to make the Model 3 in high volume prompted a cut in its credit rating by Moody’s Investors Service and a slump in its stock price.
Musk himself came in for criticism after he issued a series of recent Twitter posts complaining about negative media coverage of Tesla and attacking the “holier than thou” media.
Journalists who write critical stories about the company, he suggested, do so because they seek page views and because established carmakers “are among the world’s biggest advertisers.”
Earlier in May, during a conference call to discuss Tesla’s first-quarter earnings, Musk abruptly cut off questioning by financial analysts, saying, “Boring, bonehead questions are not cool.”
A succession of accidents involving Tesla vehicles have also drawn attention, including one on Tuesday in Laguna Beach, California, in which a Model S sedan hit a parked police vehicle while its Autopilot driver-assistance system was engaged. No injuries were reported.
The accident was the third to come to light this year in which Autopilot apparently failed to detect an obstacle. A crash on a California highway in March killed the driver; another, in Utah this month, totalled the car but left the driver with only a broken ankle.