Tesla is going after Top Gear over two years after the BBC show mocked its electric Tesla Roadster. Tesla is suing Top Gear and the BBC as a result of a December 2008 episode which featured a race between the Tesla Roadster and a gas-powered Lotus Elise.

The show featured Jeremy Clarkson claiming the Tesla ran out of charge at 55 miles followed by footage of it being pushed around a garage. Clarkson concluded his piece saying: “It’s just a shame that in the real world, it doesn’t seem to work.” Only that seems not to be the case…

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Tesla disagreed with Clarkson and pushed the BBC to admit that the footage of the Tesla being pushed illustrated what could happen. The Beeb insists the show fairly represented how the Tesla performed in tests.

But with the Top Gear episode now showing in the US, Tesla has launched a law suit saying: “The BBC’s conduct has given us no choice but to sue them and clear up their lies.” What do you think? Is Tesla doing the right thing? Or should it have just let this go?

Out now | £NA | Tesla/Top Gear (via Jalopnik)

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  • http://twitter.com/utrt Graeme Simpson

    only in america!

  • Anonymous

    Top Gear FTW! Tesla’s bitten off more than they can chew.

    And yeah, like Graeme said – only in america! :D

  • http://www.averagejoesblog.com Average Joes

    BBC are saying it’s not true, but knowing Top Gear and how they like to set stuff up I wouldn’t put it past them.

    Yes it may make good television, but should they really be able to slander car manufacturers with false information? If it is true, I say good on Telsa!

  • Mr Williams

    Sorry, but having drove a ‘fully charged’ Tesla on an experience day i can honestly say i only got 67 miles out of it instead of the claimed 200 or whatever. I conclude that Top Gear is pretty much telling the truth, but it also does depend on how you drive them!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Greg-Dixon/625935120 Greg Dixon

    Didn’t Tesla get found out that their Lands End to London in 3 days stunt was a fix because they forgot to mention that they had installed several quick charge points along the way theat weren’t normally there? I think they need to look at themselves and there previous record of manipulating the truth

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