Electric car manufacturer Tesla has slapped the BBC with a lawsuit following a damning review of its Roadster sports car on Top Gear. The company says it was forced to take action after the BBC failed to respond to its complaints.
in 2008 the Top Gear team did a review of the Tesla electric sports car, by pitting it up against a petrol Lotus. Tesla is claiming that the race was rigged, by making it look like the Tesla ran out of power. The claimed ‘miles per charge’, if driven carefully, is 313 miles. Top Gear calculated that it would only last 55 miles around their race track. The BBC will be “vigorously defending” the claims.
According to Tesla, the show, presented by TV celebrity Jeremy Clarkson, misrepresented the Roadster by adding artificial sounds to make it seem as though the electric motor was dying, and claiming that the car's true range is only 55 miles per charge. Tesla claims the vehicle can travel 200 miles on a full charge.
Tesla points out that its test cars on the day never ran out of battery power as simulated on the show, and that its Roadster has been certified under UN ECE R101, the EU regulation for measuring electric vehicle range, at 211 miles. All ECE R101 tests are witnessed and certified by a neutral third party approved by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, in Tesla's case, the Department of Road Transport--Netherlands. Though Tesla admits aggressive driving will reduce mileage, it claims that Top Gear’s assessment is not representative of real-world range.
Tesla brings TWO roadsters to a neutral track right here in America, and their own crew of advisors/intermediaries yadda-yadda. Then Top Gear U.K. and Top Gear America come together and compete in a sort of scavenger hunt where they must maximize both speed, and range of two Tesla Roads. The losers have to drive something embarrassing, like say a Reliant Robin, for the next month around their home town.
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