Tesla's Elon Musk offers "final" thoughts on NYT spat, but Twitter flames continue

For a while there, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was having a kumbaya moment after the public editor The New York Times, Margaret Sullivan, wrote that her publication may have been overzealous in its criticism of the Tesla Model S and admitted that Times reporter John Broder was not entirely precise with his mileage or speed logs.

Musk, writing on the official Tesla blog post, thanked Sullivan and the Times for the response and also singled out CNN, CNBC and Consumer Reports for duplicating Broder's test (without running dry, of course). Musk also sent a shout out to Tesla owners who wrote the Times to tell the publication it may have been off base with its findings. The Tesla chief also used the post to pitch the fact that Tesla's installing more fast chargers along the East Coast and improving the model's software.

That was on the blog. On Twitter, thing have been a bit more heated. The New York Times automotive editor, James Cobb, wrote a series of tweets to Elon, which we get into below.

Cobb praised Musk for what he's done for plug-in cars but then defended Broder, saying that Musk calling the original post "fake" was "over the line & impugned reputation of a good man and a consummate pro."


To which Musk responded that there were, "enough sour grapes ... to start a winery. Can we just bury hatchet & move on?"
Earlier this month, the Times started the entire brouhaha with a report that a Model S fell well short of its advertised single-charge range during an East Coast drive between Superchargers. Musk responded by calling the article "fake" in a tweet and said the car in question wasn't fully charged and was driven at faster speeds than reported. As Twitter shows, this story continues to inflame passion on both sides. Check out Musk's official blog post here.