>> Why would a reporter lie about the test?

> To get a story that's more interesting than "I tried this car and it was good".

And because it fit the reporter's expectation of what would have happened, without having to bother with actually following through with the experiment.

It seems from the article he did perform the experiment, but lied about his procedure. He drove further than he claimed to, and didn't fill the battery as he claimed to.

Why he would bother to do that instead of simply lie, I don't know.

I agree, I would be surprised if the reporter did make it up completely. His description is quite detailed, and it would be a bizarre thing to do, especially for someone writing for the NY Times. But such bizarre things have happened.

I will be interested to see the purported data. It may in fact turn out to be a relatively minor omission. I hope we'll see.