That's an interesting piece though I don't think that the reporting is of the same ilk as the anti-Tesla reporting.
To me (keen cyclist and non-driver), it seems like the newspapers were pushing back against the freedom that cycles were giving to women. One of my favourite pro-cycling quotes is from the suffragette Susan B. Anthony (1896):
> “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”
It would be on-brand for the newspapers to demonise cycling if it was allowing women to escape their restrictions.
Nowadays, there's doesn't seem to be much negative reporting about other car-shaped EVs, but just Teslas which pre-dates the anti-Musk viewpoints. Also, the reporting isn't just about autonomous crashes, so it would seem to me that Teslas do have an issue with quality. (Here in the UK, I only know one person with a Tesla and he's had several minor issues with it).
However, I do see parallels with the early anti-cycling reporting and current anti e-scooter/e-bike/e-motorbike reporting here in the UK, though I suspect that some of that is pushed by the motor lobby, although we do have a lot of illegal e-motorbikes being ridden around our cities.