I get why Musk feels like he needs to defend his company but I think he may be doing more harm than good on the PR front.
Do you think the average Tesla customer is going to want to wade through a bunch of plots of battery charge vs distance, etc? I think the takeaway for the average Tesla customer might be along the lines of "hmm, this seems really complicated.... am I going to have to keep the heat down while I drive even when it's 10 degrees outside?"
To me, Musk comes across as an out-of-touch engineer who keeps trying to argue the technical case and insists it's the customer's fault--it couldn't possibly be a faulty design, confusing U.I., or marketing not realizing a common (mis)use case. If I dropped $60-$100k on a car and run into problems, this is the last thing I'd want to hear on the other end of the phone.
"To me, Musk comes across as an out-of-touch engineer who keeps trying to argue the technical case and insists it's the customer's fault--it couldn't possibly be a faulty design, confusing U.I., or marketing not realizing a common (mis)use case. "
Fully agree. This is a great case study for other startups on what not to do.
There are profound differences, but let me focus on one:
Jobs and Apple tried to make the claim that people were holding the phone wrong, without ever making the claim about the proper way to hold the phone. They never said anything about the "right" or "wrong" way beforehand, so while the comment is strange it isn't hypocritical.
It's a very strange response, and clearly foolish, but Apple never made a claim before the launch that the phone could be held that way. And of course, we can be generous in retrospect because Apple eventually gave free bumper cases. But Jobs didn't make a claim on the website which was contradicted by the behavior.
In contrast, Tesla claimed that leaving the car out for a long time shouldn't cause much battery loss: "The Model S battery will not lose a significant amount of charge when parked for long periods of time. For example, Model S owners can park at the airport without plugging in."
It strikes me odd because the claim, prima facie, suggests that you can leave the car for multiple days without charging. Musk is contradicting Tesla literature here, which is why you should always be careful about the marketing material.
To me, Musk comes across as an out-of-touch engineer who keeps trying to argue the technical case and insists it's the customer's fault.
I interpreted the blog post very differently. He says that the article is an outright premeditated lie, and presents an overwhelming amount of technical data to back up his claim.
Musks blog post is meant to be technical. It's not directly towards the average Tesla customer. The average customer is probably not going to be following this.
Thousands of newspaper are going to write an article everything that happens. They will make it more reader-friendly.
Repeat: It is not Musks' intent for customer to read his blog.
But they're doing that regardless. Case in point: My local paper in Norway had a big headline two days ago: "Super-car doesn't work in the cold" in response to the original NYT article. They took it down straight away when Musk made his tweets.
The average customer is probably not going to be following this.
I wonder about that. I mean, if you are a Tesla customer (or a would-be Tesla customer), I reckon this story has come across your radar, given the sort of online media coverage. Certainly, the average customer may not read Musk's blog, but again, given that this story has been picked up by quite a few outlets on the web, I bet customers are reading it.
Do you think the average Tesla customer is going to want to wade through a bunch of plots of battery charge vs distance, etc? I think the takeaway for the average Tesla customer might be along the lines of "hmm, this seems really complicated.... am I going to have to keep the heat down while I drive even when it's 10 degrees outside?"
To me, Musk comes across as an out-of-touch engineer who keeps trying to argue the technical case and insists it's the customer's fault--it couldn't possibly be a faulty design, confusing U.I., or marketing not realizing a common (mis)use case. If I dropped $60-$100k on a car and run into problems, this is the last thing I'd want to hear on the other end of the phone.