Report: Tesla loses major part of claim against BBC’s Top Gear

Posted: Oct 19, 2011
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Tesla electric car Jeremy Clarkson Top Gear

Remember the debacle between BBC’s Top Gear and Tesla Motors? No? Well, check out these articles to update yourself:

A new report states that Tesla Motors has lost a major part of its high court libel claim against Top Gear, but is still suing the show for “malicious falsehood” over the episode that showed Jeremy Clarkson driving the Roadster.

At a high court ruling in London today, Mr Justice Tugendhat said that no viewer of the show would have compared the Roadster’s performance on the show’s track to its real-life performance on a public road.

Check out the episode after the jump.

Tugendhat said:“In my judgment, the words complained of are wholly incapable of conveying any meaning at all to the effect that the claimant [Tesla] misled anyone. This is because there is a contrast between the style of driving and the nature of the track as compared with the conditions on a public road […] are so great that no reasonable person could understand that the performance on the [Top Gear] track is capable of a direct comparison with a public road.”

Tesla argues that it has seen a ‘continuing impact’ from the episode on its reputation. Tugendhat reserved Tesla’s malicious falsehood claim. A verdict is expected within weeks.

- By: Omar Rana

Source: Guardian


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  • Cad4life

    drive a ev hard, the range drop, thats just the facts

  • Zzz

    Drive a EV at your own risk more like, the technology is too much in its infancy.

    What were Tesla Motor Corp expecting when they had Top-Gear review the Tesla… that they would slowly drive it around a shopping center carpark? I dont think so… When I go to Mcdonalds I get a burger I dont complain that their chicken is inferior to KFC…

  • Michael Paladini

    I don’t see what Tesla has their panties all in a wad about? Jeremy was actually pretty complimentary compared to some of his reviews which usually include the adjectives “rubbish” etc. It was unfortunate that the one car had brake issues, but the motor overheating and the battery running down is to be expected when your flogging it around a track like that. Not to mention despite the cars added heft due to the batteries, it still beat a Porsche 911 around the track. I think Tesla has done more damage by making an issue out of this than if they had just worked with Top-Gear on the issues, and used that event to make the car better i.e. better motor cooling etc. That would have made for much better publicity I think. Overall I think the car did pretty damn good for an all electric vehicle.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TMIUMGDAWAYXMNKYBPGLGJO2CI Anonymous

    Top gear lied. Period. They misled their viewers into thinking that the roadster was severely limited in its range (by saying that the car ran out of charge after a few laps when in fact it could have done hundreds of laps on a single charge and never even got low on charge, and also by implying that a roadster would suddenly leave you stranded if it got a low battery, also a lie) and that the other car broke (it didn’t).
    They lied about the cars with the sole intention of damaging the company (I can’t see any truth to their claims that it was “to dramatic effect” since there was no dramatic effect to the second claim whatsoever), and I have stopped watching the program since, after realizing that most of what they say is probably made up based on bribes by automakers. I mean, they are fun, but if they have zero information value then I have better programs to watch.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TMIUMGDAWAYXMNKYBPGLGJO2CI Anonymous

    Actually, no. In a petrol powered car, driving hard significantly drops the range. In an EV, driving hard has only a small effect on the range, since an EV is equally efficient at top acceleration as it is at low acceleration, and a big part of the braking recovers energy. Driving it at high speeds does affect range, but not driving it hard.
    Regardless, the car didn’t run out of battery, they made up the whole thing. And THAT’s just the facts.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TMIUMGDAWAYXMNKYBPGLGJO2CI Anonymous

    They were expecting that they would report the truth. Top Gear didn’t. Is that too much to expect?
    I don’t get the food analogy, it makes no sense at all.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TMIUMGDAWAYXMNKYBPGLGJO2CI Anonymous

    Huh? Because they lied blatantly about the car’s performance, range and reliability? It doesn’t matter if Jeremy said some nice things about the car if he jumped right on to claim that the car has severely limited range (it does not), is unreliable (it is not) and it can leave you stranded withotu warning (it won’t, at least not due to low charge). Tesla could have improved the cooling, but that wouldn’t have changed the fact that after the program everyone thought the cars were unreliable and flawed, which they were not. And the big point is that it is not a great car “for an electric vehicle”. It is a great car, period. It can smoke 90% of porsches and ferraris, it is madly fun to drive, it has great range and reliability and it is ALSO efficient and environmentally friendly. The program gave the impression that “it is OK if you are willing to trade off range and reliability for feeling green” and that is not what the roadster is about.To me, lying to the public about the products you are reviewing is not acceptable. Not even for “dramatic effect”. Period.

  • Jacob Jones

    I’m not a customer for this, as I would never spend $100K on something that can go for only a few miles and need to be recharged; simply we don’t have the charging stations in the U.S. for it. I take road trips ever year 6 to 10K miles over the summer and recharging would be infeasible. This is for in town at best.

  • Guest

    Please provide facts to your statement…

  • Denise

    It makes perfect sense. Sorry you don’t understand