Tesla sues BBC’s ‘Top Gear’ for ‘lies’ about the Roadster

March 30, 2011 By Andrew Couts

Telsa is suing the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood for claims made in a 2008 episode of "Top Gear" about the performance of the company's electric Roadster.

Two of car geeks’ favorite things — the Tesla Motors and the BBC’s wildly popular auto-enthusiast show “Top Gear” — are now in a legal battle over allegedly “false” claims made by the show in a 2008 episode.

Tesla is suing the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood, saying that a “Top Gear” episode created a false portrayal of the performance of its all-electric Roadster sports car.

“Top Gear” misrepresented the Roadster in a variety of inaccurate and damaging ways, say Tesla in its suit. The primary problem is that the episode reported that, despite Tesla’s European Union-certified claims of a 200+ mile range, the Roadster can only travel 55 miles on a single charge, based on the “Top Gear” crew’s pedal-stomping tests.

The episode also shows four men pushing the Roadster into a hanger, evidently because the car’s batteries were drained. Telsa says the on-board records of the two Tesla Roadster’s “Top Gear” had available clearly show that neither car’s charge dropped below 25 percent.

Lastly, Tesla says that claims made by the show that the car’s brakes had completely failed were false. Instead, the fuse for the braking system’s electrical pump blew, which disabled the car’s power brakes. But the brakes still worked, even without the functioning pump — a feature that is required for the car to pass all necessary safety tests.

So, why did Tesla wait two years to file the lawsuit? According to Tesla’s website, the company “reluctantly took legal action after its repeated attempts to contact the BBC, over the course of months, were ignored.” Because the “lies” made by “Top Gear” are “repeatedly and consistently re-broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide on BBC television,” plus played on websites, syndicated to other TV channels and available on “Top Gear” DVDs, Tesla simply “wants people to know the truth, and correct the public’s misperceptions.”

Watch the offending “Top Gear” clip:

Showing 4 comments

Pollywog at 1:30pm 31st March 2011 There is a companion BBC story by Brian Milligan who took 4 days to go from London to Edinburgh in a BMW Mini E (484 miles by the route he took). Sites described the show at the time as, "The BBC is currently airing a four-day hit piece about EVs, using a BMW MiniE to drive from London to Edinburgh. " As told in the The Car Tech blog (among other places), by day three David Peilow a Tesla enthusiast, got disgusted and rented a Tesla in London then started down the M6 to Edinburgh (400 miles). He arrived at Edinburgh the same day beating Brian Milligan (who arrived the next day at 9:00PM). Per Greendump, "Despite the cold and thick fog, David arrived last night in Edinburgh with his very patient and understanding girlfriend riding shotgun. Stopping only twice for charging opportunities at a 30 amp and 70 amp station, he drove using headlights, windshield wipers and heat. ". His primary charging session was at Tebay (270 miles from London) where he stopped to eat. Given the 156 mile range of the Mini E under optimum conditions, and the solo Brian Milligan being stingy with lights and heat, the cars should have been reasonably close in travel times. Instead the difference was 4-1. Milligan used low power public chargers and public roads with a prototype that had no thermal management. Peilow used 30 and 70 amps chargers, and traveled on the M6. It is difficult to justify Milligan's times if he started with a charged vehicle and recharged it overnight. Given Peilow's performance it is almost impossible to believe a Tesla "ran out of gas" after 55 miles (which is what the BBC implied). I would think that the libel suit is on fairly solid ground.
Blake Morgan at 7:17pm 30th March 2011 I find myself siding with top gear...telsa can claim whatever they want, but the reality is that the cars they supplied stopped running effectively after 50 miles, not to mention the power breaks went out, which are pretty important if you are driving as fast and as hard as the fellows at TG are.
Shile Oguntade at 5:20pm 30th March 2011 its what makes people watch the show, their sarcasm! did you see the ad TG made for vw scirocco? its a funny show where thye play with the toys and you're supposed to visit your local dealer or whatever to get a personal feel for the car. matter of fact, why didn't they sue for the good things they said about them?
Paul I. Hwangbo at 4:32pm 30th March 2011 Tg didn't really mess up on anything except maybe the battery dying, but anyone who watches this show even for the first time can see the sarcasm right away....meaning take what the show says with a grain of salt. Tesla needs to calm down and ask for tg to issue a statement, although tg might not like them for it and ruin them.