Tesla on the charge over Top Gear review

Cast your mind back to December 2008. That’s when Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the electric-powered Tesla Roadster on Top Gear. Generally speaking, he praised the Tesla for its rapid pace, but was very critical about the time it would take to re-charge the battery when it went flat.

And it is the subject of the battery going flat that has landed Clarkson and the BBC in hot water. In his review Jeremy claimed the battery could go flat after just 55 miles of travel on the Top Gear test track. The next shot showed the car being pushed into a hangar to be re-charged.

Clarkson also claimed the brakes failed on the test car. He concluded his review by saying, “What we have here, then, is an astonishing technical achievement. The first electric car that you might actually want to buy. It’s just a shame, that in the real world, it doesn’t seem to work.”

Yesterday, Tesla Motors Inc began legal proceedings against the BBC claiming defamation and malicious falsehood. They believe the car’s battery didn’t go flat, that it didn’t need to be pushed into the hangar and that its brakes did not fail.

Crucially, Tesla say their UK director of sales and marketing has seen two scripts that they believe were created for the program before Clarkson had driven the Roadster. Critical aspects of those scripts were played out in the final review that went to air.

[Source: Daily Mail]