Who drives a vehicle to empty? This is a BS story with a bad title, no information worth reading, and makes conclusions that are of no use. With an EV you can almost double the range by going slower. I am certain that the EPA can be trusted more than this media source after reading this crap.

In California it is illegal to leave your car running with the key in it. Not sure if this would qualify, but if someone did steal the car and had the key, it would be hard to prove you didn't lend them the car. I don't care how safe the area, kids will be kids and leaving any high power device that can kill people locked and loaded is less than smart.

To begin I must say that Burbank and some other areas around the south are getting in to the Model S, and not looking back.

As for the NY Times idiot - Let me ask how many people would not smile as they drove past a gas station? If you would not smile, you are indeed not some one that represents most of the world. I won't listen to some one like that, and clearly this was as much an opinion piece as a review of the vehicle. This reporter has no clue what most people feel when they drive past a gas station, free from the addiction!

I got to ride in one of these in Santa Monica, and it is impressive, and a step in the right direction. Lots of power is required for a lot of jobs, and this is a vehicle that will attract more people to the ability electric drive has. For most people 100 mpge will not be a problem, since an electric motor is as efficient as the driver is. When you need to haul a trailer behind it you won't get that, but without the waste energy it is achievable easily.

It beats a kick in the head. I am almost half way through 60,000 miles and two years and I have only lost one bar, so I doubt I will use it though.

EV's don't die easy, most of the ones that are sold stay on the road.

Put a Tesla Coil in the back of it, and make the air crackle. Shouldn't be too hard or too costly. Then turn it off as you run over stuff. Really cool to hear the cars under it being crushed, something you don't hear over the sound of those other engines. Leave the windshields in next time, and you will hear some real crushing going on.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Filling your gas tank is an example of this. Insane is using 15 -20% of the energy potential in a fuel to get where you need to go, allowing the other 80+% go toward heat production. An EV going downhill can be 101% efficient because it can create energy to fuel it. Now that is sanity.

One problem that EV's have right now is that the people that want them most - those that drive long commutes - can't really use them. Why is a start up(Tesla) able to solve this issue, and major car companies can't? Heavier cars (EV's)wear out tires faster than lighter vehicles. Right now that is an issue that could be improved. With the incredible torque the EV has the average driver will also add to that wear by doing jack rabbit starts - something that can actually be an efficient use of energy in an EV, if you don't consider the tire wear issue. In my Nissan Leaf, I am coming up on 25,000 miles and 21 months of primarily city and mountain driving. I expect I will need tires soon. All of the maintenance has been tire based so far.

In Santa Monica I was in a parade that had almost that many vehicles. http://santamonica.patch.com/articles/electric-vehicles-parade-down-main-st-see-pics#photo-8134360