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Tesla is notoriously fond of libel lawsuits; a local paper probably can't afford to fight one.

Um. I find references to a grand total of one libel lawsuit of note by Tesla, against BBC / Top Gear.

Claims rejected by the court.

That fails to meet the threshold of "notoriously fond" in my book.

References?

That lists one libel lawsuit by Tesla, against BBC and Top Gear. Claims dismissed. (And that's with the UK's quite liberal libel laws.)

There's one other case mentioned, but that involved a libel suit against Tesla. The characterisation of GP is not substantiated.