Elon Musk Extra Cranky At NYT Tesla Review After Losing “Hundreds” Of Orders

This is my displeased face. I am displeased.

This is my displeased face. I am displeased.

As if he didn’t already have enough bees in his bonnet, Tesla’s Elon Musk is feeling extra crunchy at the New York Times review of his company’s electric car, claiming it caused the loss of a “few hundred” orders of the Tesla S. Those cancellations cost money, he says, and the company’s valuation has suffered by as much as $100 million. This, according to Musk.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Musk discusses how Tesla has been affected since John Broder issued his now (in)famous review of the electric car a few weeks ago. The CEO says there were at least a few hundred orders canceled from what he sees as bad reporting.

“We did actually get a lot of cancellations as a result of the New York Times article. It probably affected us to the tune of tens of millions, to the order of $100 million, so it’s not trivial,” he says in yesterday’s interview, clarifying that there weren’t $100 million in orders lost.

“I would say that refers more to the valuation of the company. It wasn’t as though there were 1,000 cancellations just due to The New York Times article. There were probably a few hundred.”

He claims that despite the data from the reviewer’s ride saying one thing, that the piece told an entirely different story. One he’s called “fake” in the past.

“The thing I really thought was wrong is that we are looking at the data from the test drive and it does not correlate at all to the article that was written,” he adds in the interview.

He bemoans the shot of the car on the flatbed, saying that it’s “sad” and that it just isn’t true that the only outcome of a drive in the car will be stranded by the side of the road.

“And lots of people said that it does not matter if you’re right or wrong, you do not battle the New York Times,” he explains. “To hell with that. I would rather tell the truth and suffer the consequences even if they are negative. I do not think it should be the end of his career or that he should be fired, but I do think that he fudged an article.”

Previously: Oh Lordy, Here’s A Bunch Of Stuff About The NYT/Tesla Holy War

Musk: NYT Likely Cost Tesla Hundreds of Orders [Bloomberg TV]

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