Back when I owned one of the original Honda Insights, it became very obvious that I would need to adjust my driving habits to fully take advantage of the car's enormous driving range.

If I drove like a typical New Jersey-ian then my range would have been somewhere around 450 miles. With some adjustments (namely going around 65mph at most), I could regularly attain 700+ range. This is an adjustment many people absolutely refuse to make. Once I really learned how to get the most out of my car the milage numbers were unbelievable. When I sold the car my lifetime milage was 68 mpg over 130,000 miles (in nj climate).

I can see why Musk is so frustrated... he gets a reviewer that has no interest whatsoever in understanding the vehicle's prime operating conditions and instead is driving the car like a Hertz rental. When going on a long range trip, it should be obvious that you need to drive conservatively. Use the car's incredible performance for shorter trips so that you are not at risk.

I have no problems with these limitations, and I think they are acceptable. I was quite impressed that the range numbers for Tesla were over 500 miles... my current kia rio can't touch that despite getting nearly 50mpg. I have a feeling the media is never going to "get" electric cars because they don't get conservation.