Source: Consumer Reports: Tesla is ‘absolutely the leader’ in electric cars | EVANNEX Aftermarket Tesla Accessories Yes, more automakers introducing EVs provides more viable options. But there's a catch. Legacy automakers are having trouble keeping up with Tesla. “They are absolutely the leader,” says Jake Fisher, senior director of automotive testing at Consumer Reports (CR). “Through the years, they’ve made multiple changes to their motors and batteries and other things under the skin of their vehicles. This is a continual thing that they do.” "Tesla’s competitors are coming close to matching the capacity of its battery packs, but they’re falling short of translating that into better range. The Audi E-Tron comes with a 95-kWh battery pack, close to the 100-kWh pack in the long-range version of the Tesla Model X. But the E-tron’s 204 miles of range is only 62 percent of the range of the similarly sized Model X (328 miles). The Porsche Taycan comes with a 93-kWh battery pack but manages only 201 miles of range, compared with 373 for the 100-kWh version of the Model S," adds CR. And Elon Musk recently tweeted that Tesla's long range plus Model S now has an EPA-rated range above 390 miles. I suspect a CR plot to get me to renew our subscription. <grins> We went through over a decade of CR reviews that trashed the Prius. Nothing changed until we dropped our subscription and they went through two editorial boards. Once on their third editorial board, we finally saw a fair Prius review and subscribed. But they moved the Prius bashers to Tesla coverage. <gerrrr> Bob Wilson
Negative stories get more clicks. Why do people click on bad news? Negativity bias They "know their audience!" They have to write negative stories to keep their jobs! Mike
The consumer reports Story shows proof that they still don't know what they're talking about in many instances. The Porsche Audi Volkswagen group chose to forego using good amounts of the lower & upper end traction pack buffers, for the multi-pronged benefits - minimize heat /faster charging & assuring capacity longevity. The downside of that philosophy means they're lugging around a lot a battery that doesn't get translated into lengthier trip miles. But unlike a Tesla on the Autobahn, if you're going balls-out, the Porsche / Audi won't start limiting your max speed - due to heet/ultra fast discharge. Not that anyone needs to continually Drive max speed, but it's just indicative of a different manufacturing philosophy. Through software OTA updates, Tesla has started limiting range & max charge speeds. Sudden Loss Of Range With 2019.16.x Software | Page 566 | Tesla Motors Club Over 500 pages complaining sudden Rings loss. It kind of corroborates the downside of these usable battery capacity issues, as Tesla wouldn't be capping charge speeds & voltage, unless there were concerns that traction packs would be less likely to make it to end of warranty. So - yeah, CR looks like they are giving Tesla a nod, but it's based on their ignorance, which is often the case on their bias & /or investigative screw-ups. .
