Outraged over John Broder's scathing New York Times review of the Tesla Model S electric car, a group of Model S owners banded together over the weekend to recreate Broder's ill-fated trip up the I-95 corridor.
A caravan of six privately-owned Model S vehicles -- at times the group swelled to a dozen -- traveled from Washington, D.C., up the Jersey Turnpike, through Connecticut and up to Boston, through cold conditions and an overnight stay mirroring those of Broder's trip.
All the cars successfully completed the journey, and only one had minor difficulties resulting in an hour-long delay.
Two weeks ago, the Times printed Broder's account of a road trip he took in a Model S that resulted in anxious power conservation and an eventual tow on a flatbed truck after the car ran out of power on the side of the road.
A few days later, Tesla founder Elon Musk said Broder's review was fabricated. The company released detailed logs recorded by the review car that conflicted in several ways with Broder's report.
CNN took advantage of the conflict, sending their own reporter on the same route with another Model S, a journey that finished without a hitch.
Broder's supports claimed the CNN test drive took place in much milder weather than Broder's, a variable the Times reporter claims affected his vehicle's battery.
So Tesla owners took matters into their own hands. On Saturday morning, a half dozen Model S electric cars gathered in Rockville, Md., a suburb of D.C.
They drove together up to the free Tesla-branded Supercharger recharging station in Newark, Del. before setting off on the 222-mile leg to the next station in Milford, Conn.
In Delaware, one of the cars refused to charge to full, stopping at a 180 mile range, short of the power needed to make it to Connecticut. The other cars left, joined by other owners for part of their journey, while the owner of the malfunctioning Model S placed a call to Tesla support.
The Tesla staff diagnosed the problem and issued a personalized firmware update for the car that fixed the issue, and the Model S caught up to the caravan in Milford.
The group then stayed the night in Connecticut, mimicking Broder's journey, then traveled up to Boston together. Unlike Broder's trip, the cold weather did not leave them short of charge.
Read the firsthand account from the road trip Twitter feed and a ride-along blogger.
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