Jefferies Defends Tesla Following Negative NY Times Article

Shares of Tesla Motors

are down more than 3 percent Monday morning following a

article from over the weekend entitled

. The article author recently test drove a Tesla Model S sedan which did not end so well: amid a drive from Washington to NYC, the car stalled reportedly due to cold weather. Jefferies' Elaine Kwei believes the issues dealt with on the test drive were likely attributable to an improper charging protocol, something which is not necessarily controllable by Tesla. Kwei suggested the vast majority of Model S buyer's have been "very impressed." The Jefferies analyst reiterated a Buy rating and raised her price target on the stock from $36 to $45 ahead of the company's Q4 results later this week.