Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson with fellow hosts Richard Hammond and James May.
At first glance, the idea of Tesla suing Top Gear over a review of the Roadster that occurred three years ago seems pointless, especially throwing in the fact that Top Gear, and host Jeremy Clarkson, have a huge international following.
But it is precisely the size of that following and the longevity of the Top Gear episode featuring the Tesla Roadster that has spurred the action.
Tesla filed suit against Top Gear for libel and malicious falsehood. In the episode containing the review, Clarkson claimed that the Roadster, as tested on the track, had a range of only 90km. The show also portrayed both Roadster models supplied to the show as breaking down and running out of electricity, halting testing.
Using the car's own data, Tesla says it can prove the battery levels never got below 20 per cent charge while being used by Top Gear. Tesla also points out that the EU regulatory body certified the range of the Roadster at 340km. One car apparently did have a fuse for the power brakes blow out, but mechanical braking still worked. Tesla says that Top Gear scripted the segment, complete with portrayals of dead batteries, before testing even began.
Tesla VP of Communications Ricardo Reyes writes of the lawsuit in the Tesla blog, "It is the only recourse we have; our repeated attempts to contact the BBC, over the course of months, were ignored." He points out that Top Gear continues to rebroadcast the episode and sell DVDs featuring the segment.
Top Gear currently has its video review of the Tesla hosted on its site, but if the video below doesn't work for you it's not hard to find the clip on YouTube.
People have posted comments on the internet that Top Gear's review was faked and many fans of the show recognise that many of its segments are staged. Top Gear occasionally gets itself embroiled in controversy, such as in a recent episode when the hosts promulgated a negative stereotype of Mexican workers. That episode earned it a letter from the Mexican ambassador to the UK.
Tesla says it is not interested in making money from the suit, but wants to correct the negative impressions Top Gear is giving about the Roadster.
As a huge fan of both Top Gear and Tesla, I am saddened to see Tesla have so little sense of humor and resort to the courts. Anyone who watches Top Gear, knows that their "reports" are biased in favor of "petrol"-only vehiclesthey are anti-alternative fuel and anti-American but only if they can elicit comic effect. I saw the original broadcast and I had found the report to be, plesantly positive.