US magazine Consumer Reports slams Elon Musk’s Tesla Model 3

Why did influential US magazine Consumer Reports decline to give Elon Musk’s Tesla Model 3 a recommended buy rating?

Influential US magazine Consumer Reports has declined to recommend Tesla’s Model 3 sedan just as Elon Musk’s company battles to reverse production shortfalls.

Influential US magazine Consumer Reports has declined to recommend Tesla’s Model 3 sedan, saying it braked slower than a full-sized pickup truck.

The car is seen as crucial to the electric car company’s profitability at a time when it is battling to reverse production shortfalls, confronting reports of crashes involving its vehicles and facing increased scepticism over its finances.

Update: Elon Musk admits Tesla’s Model 3 could have a brake problem

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and chief executive of Tesla, said that the fully-loaded Model 3, with all-wheel drive, a dual motor and a 499km range — but excluding its vaunted Autopilot feature — would cost $US78,000 ($A102,968) and “beat anything in its class on the track”.

The company has not yet begun to make the $US35,000 ($A46,000) base price version that Tesla originally claimed would make it a mass-market vehicle.

However, Consumer Reports declined to recommend the Model 3 and criticised it for having overly long stopping distances and a difficult-to-use centre touchscreen.

Consumer Reports America’s top product-testing magazine which provides an annual rating of vehicles sold in the United States, said even though its tests found plenty to like about the Model 3 and it was a thrill to drive, it had “big flaws.”

Tesla’s stopping distance of 46m when braking at 100 km per hour was “far worse” than any contemporary car tested by the magazine and about seven feet longer than the stopping distance of a Ford F-150 full-sized pickup, it said.

Tesla said its own testing had found braking distances of 133 feet on average using the 18” Michelin all season tyre, and as low as 126 feet with all tyres currently available.

Although it doesn’t happen often, Consumer Reports in the past has decided not to recommend vehicles based largely on long braking distances. Last year the magazine decided not to recommend the Hyundai Ioniq gas-electric hybrid car because of below-average braking. It took the car 144 feet to fully stop from 60 mph on dry pavement.

Wait for it pic.twitter.com/mR13wIIu1r

— Tesla (@Tesla) May 15, 2018

The magazine also said nearly all of the Model 3’s controls are on the centre touch screen direction with no gauges on the dashboard and few buttons inside the car. This forces drivers to take several steps to do simple tasks and can cause driver distraction, the magazine said.

The car also had a stiff ride and excessive wind noise at highway speeds, unlike competitors, Consumer Reports said.

The magazine said it took delivery of the Model 3 that it purchased on February 8, and it was the latest model available at the time.

A spokeswoman for Tesla said that its testing had found an average stopping distance of 133ft from 60mph. She added: “Tesla is uniquely positioned to address cases over time through over-the-air software updates and it continually does so to improve factors such as stopping distance.”

Shares in Tesla rose by 2.7 per cent yesterday to $US284.23 in afternoon trading, despite the magazine’s criticism

Meanwhile, a Tesla Model S sedan has crashed and killed the driver in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of a recent spate of crashes, some of which involved fire and some of which took place while the company’s semi-autonomous Autopilot technology was engaged.

In the latest case, the car launched off a rural county road into a nearby pond more than 60 feet from the road, state and local law enforcement said. Tesla said it did not yet know the facts and had not yet received data from the car, but was cooperating with local authorities.

AAP/Reuters, AP