Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and inventor perhaps best known for founding SpaceX, co-founding Tesla Motors and PayPal, has revealed that the negative New York Times’ review of the Tesla Model S electric car may have cost the company in the region of $100 million, in terms of company valuation.
Just to recap, John Broder from the NYT posted a less-than-flattering synopsis of Tesla’s new machine earlier this month after becoming stranded on a stretch of road sans charge. This resulted in a spat between Musk and Broder in the weeks that followed, and Musk actually published data to back up his claim that Broder lied in his review of the car.
Now, in an interview with Bloomberg Television the billionaire billionaire has claimed the review led to hundreds of cancellations. “It probably affected us to the tune of tens of millions, if not on the order of $100 million, so it’s not trivial,” he said.
When asked by interviewer Betty Liu whether he meant that related specifically to cancelled orders, he clarified and said he was referring more to the valuation of the company.
Musk, however, did reaffirm his belief that their data from the test drive doesn’t correlate with what was written in the New York Times’ article.
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He also went on to confirm Tesla’s expansion plans for the Model S in Europe and beyond, with June and July being touted as key shipping months for the company, how they plan to keep costs down and boost production, whether Tesla would have the same demand without a $7,500 US tax credit and more.
Meanwhile, you can watch the full Bloomberg interview for yourself here.
Feature Image Credit – Getty
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