Category: Top Gear

Andy Wilman, Top Gear’s Executive Producer, has taken the unusual step of publicly responding to Tesla’s legal challenge with an entry on the Top Gear Transmission blog. Importantly, he addresses the allegation that Top Gear had prepared its verdict on the car before filming for their review began.

Last week Tesla issued a writ against Top Gear claiming defamation and malicious falsehood over the show’s review of the Tesla Roadster (Series 12, Episode 7).

In Wilman’s blog he counters Tesla’s general criticisms, but it is his words on the claim that Top Gear had pre-judged the electric-powered sportscar before driving it, as evidenced by scripts seen by a Tesla employee, that carries the most interest.

First, Wilman states, “The truth is, Top Gear had already driven the car prior to filming, to enable us to form a view on it in advance.”

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.”