Tesla 'accuse' Top Gear of being 'lying b'stards'

Well, if you're afraid of the ~2.4GHz frequency band, you better stay clear of bluetooth, wifi, or almost anything else wireless.

Did you actually read the whole paper?
 
I did, and it pretty much says to not be as worried or sceptical as you currently are.

It's full of "probablys" and "maybes". And they do mention there's a heating issue.
My guess is still this will never happen on a bigger scale, as in something generally used for cars.
Same as I really dont think that electric cars will ever become anything else than a niche car for environ-mentalists/climate-hype-freaks.
 
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Well I'm not an environmentalist or climate-hype freak, but I would like to drive in a world full of electric cars. They're just attractive to me for many reasons which aren't just to do with that.
 
you know freedom of speech? anyone calling electric leafblowers 'cars' should have theirs revoked.....
 
Now that Top Gear as we know it is gone and that Tesla has really moved on since that review, do you think we will see exciting stuff about Tesla on the new shows?
 
They have a car that will do 0-60 MPH in 2.8 seconds.
 
Now that Top Gear as we know it is gone and that Tesla has really moved on since that review, do you think we will see exciting stuff about Tesla on the new shows?

I'm sure the new eco-green-PC-'comedy'-everylineapprovedbyBBCtopmanagement 'Top Gear' will just be gushing over anything Their Most Holy Saint Tesla deigns to drop off with them.

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They have a car that will do 0-60 MPH in 2.8 seconds.

And has an interior worse than a Hyundai Sonata, so you wonder just where all the money went.
 
Unless Tesla starts actually turning a profit, they might be out of business by the time the two new shows hit (ok, that's an exaggeration, but the writing is on the wall unless they stop surviving off government funds).
 


Already discussed in another thread. Tesla runs their books using non-GAAP practices so the chances are, yes, they are covering up losses like this - or perhaps worse ones. Saving myself some typing, copying prior posts:

Yeah, but did you notice that their bookkeeping is also non-GAAP? For those that don't know, GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, I.e., the way the books are kept and reported in the supermajority of companies in the U.S. Running your books as non-GAAP is often very bad and a sign of a company that has something to hide.

To put it in a car context, non-GAAP accounting is like the old SAE 'gross' horsepower, where the producer can claim whatever they feel like. GAAP kept books are like SAE net HP, where you have a specific set of criteria with which to evaluate things.

The first thing they need to do if they want to be profitable is move their factory out of California - that alone is immensely increasing their costs. They do seem to have realized this is a problem as instead of using more of the huge ex-Toyota plant they're only using a small corner of now for their new battery factory, they sited it in Reno, Nevada.

A bit of non-GAAP info isn't necessarily a problem; there are things that GAAP doesn't do a good job of depicting or explaining the status of. The problem comes in when you're mostly or completely running your books and making your statements based on non-GAAP techniques. This is what Tesla (and for similar reasons, General/Government Motors) is doing, mostly to obscure the fact that by the metrics most companies use they are bleeding money.

Edit: Here's a brief discussion of GAAP versus non-GAAP and the implications: http://ww2.cfo.com/accounting-tax/2014/03/mind-non-gaap/

The fact remains that Tesla is burning through more money than they've got coming in - and even their non-GAAP gyrations can't hide that when you start digging.
 
I actually put in to buy one when they first came out. Every time they sent me something the price had gone up. It was double the original cost when I started throwing the mail in the trash unopened.

It is hard for me to believe they have lasted this long.
 
Thing is, TGUK's coverage of electric cars has pretty much negated any controversy re performance -- the AMG showed good track work (with fewer build quality problems) and the Leaf-MIEV segment showed they could perform well on the road (with Jeremy saying he liked the comfort and build quality of the Leaf).

The real issue now for electrics is range anxiety. A future TG is going to have to challenge Tesla's (and any other electric maker's) claims of extended range beyond 100 miles.
 
I think the problem is TG's treatment of electric and hybrid vehicles has been largely dismissive, branding them as the choice of "ecomentalists". They have clouded their own findings by dismissing alternatives to the ICE as a "bunch of tree-higging hippy crap".

Car makers have always exaggerated the fuel efficiencies of the products and will continue to do so I am sure.

What future TG reviews need to do to be taken seriously by both the audience and the manufacturers is do side-by-side comparisons of ICE, hybrid and pure electric vehicles and show how much the claimed ranges differ from the real world in all cases. I know it sounds a bit stuffy and What Car? but they should be able to do it in a way that remains entertaining while making the point in a fair and valid way.

If they go too far in favour of electric then those who fear a new PC, lentil-based TG will be proven right and the show will disappear down the pan faster than last night's Chicken Vindaloo.
 
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