Tesla Suing Top Gear

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Tesla has filed a lawsuit against the BBC show Top Gear. How do I know this? Because the car company has made a website dedicated to the lawsuit called Tesla vs. Top Gear. This all seems a bit drama queen-ish, don't you think?

When Top Gear reviewed the Tesla Roadster, the episode that aired contained lies and misinformation about the Roadster’s performance, behaviour and reliability. Tesla reluctantly took legal action after its repeated attempts to contact the BBC, over the course of months, were ignored.
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I'm pretty sure they'll lose. If the vehicle was reviewed and test driven and the findings made public I don
t see how they are lies unless they don't match the lies that Tesla is trying to tell people saying that Top Gear lied about the lie that tesla was conveying or some BS.
 
compudocs said:
I'm pretty sure they'll lose. If the vehicle was reviewed and test driven and the findings made public I don
t see how they are lies unless they don't match the lies that Tesla is trying to tell people saying that Top Gear lied about the lie that tesla was conveying or some BS.
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Well, Tesla is stating that they gave Top Gear 2 cars, and that one was always fully charged and ready to go, and that neither car went below a 25% state of charge, meaning the scene where they pushed the Tesla back into the garage was bogus. Not sure who to believe. I do know that my Chevy Volt wouldn't have had that problem, haha. Then again, my Volt isn't as fast as a Roadster.
 
"Specifically, Top Gear misrepresented that:
1. The Roadster ran out of charge and had to be pushed into the Top Gear hangar by 4 men.
2. The Roadster’s true range is only 55 miles per charge (not 211).
3. One Roadster’s motor overheated and was completely immobilized as a result.
4. The other Roadster’s brakes were broken, rendering the car undriveable.
5. That neither of the two Roadsters provided to Top Gear was available for test driving due to these problems.

The breakdowns were staged and the statements are untrue. "


Why would Top Gear stage these things? I don't get it.
 
Oh no! Don't tell me that everythnig on Top Gear isn't 100% factually accurate?!?!

Tesla needs to get over itself. Anyone that knows anything about Top Gear knows that they will always favor British cars, hate the Beetle, and hate electric cars almost as much as Clarkson hates the Vette. It's a fun show to watch, but you can't take the entire show seriously.
 
Wait, this is interesting:

http://jalopnik.com/#!5115617/shocking-scandal-top-gear-tesla-didnt-run-out-of-juice

According to the Top Gear spokeswoman, the tested Tesla was filmed being pushed into the shed in order to show what would happen if the Roadster had run out of charge.
"Top Gear stands by the findings in this film and is content that it offers a fair representation of the Tesla's performance on the day it was tested," the BBC said in statement.
 
Tesla just needs more press since their sales are down. This stunt is quite transparent and sad.
 
More technical details:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/03/30/tesla-vs-top-gear/


Over the last several months, we have written to the BBC, asking them to stop repeating the serious and damaging lies on the show. Specifically:

The Roadster’s true range is only 55 miles per charge. Clarkson says: “Although Tesla say it will do 200 miles we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles.”
Fact: The 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. Of course, a car driven aggressively will get reduced mileage, regardless of whether its fueled by petrol or electricity, as Top Gear found. At the other end of the spectrum, through mindful driving, a Tesla owner achieved an astounding 313 miles on a single charge. To let either of these extremes represent real-world range is an incomplete analysis.

One of the Roadsters ran out of charge and had to be pushed into the Top Gear hangar by four men.
Fact: Neither Roadster ran out of charge during Top Gear’s tests, or even came close. We know because the Roadster records basic operating information. The show fails to mention that neither Roadster ever went below twenty-five percent charge. Why stage the stunt of pushing it into the hangar?

The Roadster’s brakes broke, rendering the car not drivable.
Fact: During Top Gear’s drive on the test track, the fuse for the braking system’s electric vacuum pump failed. But the brakes were operational and safe. The result was like driving a car without the convenient power brakes to which we’ve grown accustomed. Tesla’s brakes, both with and without the fuse, must pass all UN ECE safety tests, and they do.

Neither Roadster provided to Top Gear was available for test driving due to these problems.
Fact: At all times, there was at least one Roadster at the ready.
 
Jeremy C said:
Oh no! Don't tell me that everythnig on Top Gear isn't 100% factually accurate?!?!

Tesla needs to get over itself. Anyone that knows anything about Top Gear knows that they will always favor British cars, hate the Beetle, and hate electric cars almost as much as Clarkson hates the Vette. It's a fun show to watch, but you can't take the entire show seriously.
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What a strangely appropriate name you've chosen. Nice foresight, bro.
 
... and then there are cars that are (hype-aside) just absolute rubbish.

"And on that bombshell..."

Seriously, I think anyone who has actually watched Top Gear would quickly discover that it's not a replacement for Consumer Reports (Then again, I never put much weight into J.D. Powers either.).

Sounds to me like Tesla is taking it personally.
 
well Tesla seems to be suggesting that TG has a alternative motive or perhaps outside influences.

I live right near Tesla and see their cars driving around everyday. I've never seen one on the side of the road or broken down.

I'd like to see what comes of this. I've seen a lot of TV shows loose credibility because of corporate sponsors or just flat out bogus footage. On the other hand they could be unveiling a flaw in the design and that could scare investors.
 
Well, it certainly sounds like things were staged a bit. It's unfortunate that Clarkson and company haven't realized that the truly humourous doesn't have to be made up.

I love the show and recognize the bias, but they shouldn't have to lie to poke fun at Tesla and fly the British flag.

pgaster said:
Why would Top Gear stage these things? I don't get it.
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I enjoy watching TG and they do things over the top. But to stage something basically showing the car as unable to function at all is pretty serious.
 
Honestly from the linked information in this thread, I am inclined to believe Tesla, which at the start of the the OP's (Steve's) linked article, I was not
 
pgaster said:
More technical details:
The Roadster’s true range is only 55 miles per charge. Clarkson says: “Although Tesla say it will do 200 miles we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles.”
Fact: The Roadster has been certified under UN ECE R101, the EU regulation for measuring electric vehicle range, at 211 miles.
Click to expand...

Tesla is failing to see the test. They tested it on a track; which is balls to the wall driving at 100% throttle as much as possible. Of course it only ran 55 miles. They also did a test having an M3 keep up with a Prius that was at full throttle and the M3 was better on mileage. It was a test on a track and not real world use. I'm betting most Top Gear viewers know the difference, and it's too bad Tesla doesn't.

The result of this will be: Plenty of good comical mentions of Tesla in the upcoming season. I look forward to it.
 
I thought Tesla got over this a long time ago, doesn't appear to be the case. Rehashing the past is counterproductive here, even worse is a lawsuit for non-damages.
 
eh... it's a sporty car, shouldn't it be driven aggressively and "fun" as opposed to the conservative testing.
 
I dunno, I saw that spot and even though the tesla had some technical difficulties, I thought Top Gear gave it a lot of positivity and glow otherwise. Seemed fair to me.
 
I remember seeing the episode in question, and I know at least that the mileage claims were made under track conditions... most performance cars get between 3-8 mpg on gas, so that would make sense.
 
pgaster said:
The Roadster’s true range is only 55 miles per charge. Clarkson says: “Although Tesla say it will do 200 miles we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles.”
Fact: The 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. Of course, a car driven aggressively will get reduced mileage, regardless of whether its fueled by petrol or electricity, as Top Gear found. At the other end of the spectrum, through mindful driving, a Tesla owner achieved an astounding 313 miles on a single charge. To let either of these extremes represent real-world range is an incomplete analysis.
Click to expand...

As aggressively as Jeremy Clarkson drives, I'm surprised it went that far.

One of the Roadsters ran out of charge and had to be pushed into the Top Gear hangar by four men.
Fact: Neither Roadster ran out of charge during Top Gear’s tests, or even came close. We know because the Roadster records basic operating information. The show fails to mention that neither Roadster ever went below twenty-five percent charge. Why stage the stunt of pushing it into the hangar?
Click to expand...

Why not? Did they ever watch the show before sending the cars to them?

The Roadster’s brakes broke, rendering the car not drivable.
Fact: During Top Gear’s drive on the test track, the fuse for the braking system’s electric vacuum pump failed. But the brakes were operational and safe. The result was like driving a car without the convenient power brakes to which we’ve grown accustomed. Tesla’s brakes, both with and without the fuse, must pass all UN ECE safety tests, and they do.

Neither Roadster provided to Top Gear was available for test driving due to these problems.
Fact: At all times, there was at least one Roadster at the ready.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the brakes broke. If the brakes weren't working as intended and it wasn't one of their "go out and buy a POS car then beat the shit out of it" segments, I can definitely see them considering it not drivable.
 
pgaster said:
More technical details:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/03/30/tesla-vs-top-gear/


Over the last several months, we have written to the BBC, asking them to stop repeating the serious and damaging lies on the show. Specifically:

The Roadster’s true range is only 55 miles per charge. Clarkson says: “Although Tesla say it will do 200 miles we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles.”
Fact: The 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. Of course, a car driven aggressively will get reduced mileage, regardless of whether its fueled by petrol or electricity, as Top Gear found. At the other end of the spectrum, through mindful driving, a Tesla owner achieved an astounding 313 miles on a single charge. To let either of these extremes represent real-world range is an incomplete analysis.

One of the Roadsters ran out of charge and had to be pushed into the Top Gear hangar by four men.
Fact: Neither Roadster ran out of charge during Top Gear’s tests, or even came close. We know because the Roadster records basic operating information. The show fails to mention that neither Roadster ever went below twenty-five percent charge. Why stage the stunt of pushing it into the hangar?

The Roadster’s brakes broke, rendering the car not drivable.
Fact: During Top Gear’s drive on the test track, the fuse for the braking system’s electric vacuum pump failed. But the brakes were operational and safe. The result was like driving a car without the convenient power brakes to which we’ve grown accustomed. Tesla’s brakes, both with and without the fuse, must pass all UN ECE safety tests, and they do.

Neither Roadster provided to Top Gear was available for test driving due to these problems.
Fact: At all times, there was at least one Roadster at the ready.
Click to expand...

synapsis said:
Tesla is failing to see the test. They tested it on a track; which is balls to the wall driving at 100% throttle as much as possible. Of course it only ran 55 miles. They also did a test having an M3 keep up with a Prius that was at full throttle and the M3 was better on mileage. It was a test on a track and not real world use. I'm betting most Top Gear viewers know the difference, and it's too bad Tesla doesn't.

The result of this will be: Plenty of good comical mentions of Tesla in the upcoming season. I look forward to it.
Click to expand...

On the range I see nothing wrong with what Top Gear said. A car running around a track like that will have a lower range. Same way if you take out ratings for highway and city driving. You run the car hard they will drop. Top Gear said they worked out that it would only do 55 miles on a charge while running it on the track. That is a bigger drop then one would expect.

For the brakes Tesla admits the breaks broke. They claim they were still usable but hell top gear just said the brakes failed. They did when they stopped working to spec. They were running the car hard and I'd want the brakes to function correctly as well.

For the overheating topgear said it went into a limp mode. They showed it driving in it. I didn't see them saying it was "completely immobilized" due to it. Once again a car on loan failed and they stopped using it to prevent damage.

Tesla is really just giving them-selfs a bad name for this.The only thing I see if top gear showing the car being pushed after they gave its range. That was wrong.
 
Although now I'm flopping back over to TG's side. I recall the Ford GT supercar going something like 30 miles on a full tank of gas...wow. And if the brakes weren't 100% operational, I could see them not wanting to put it through hard track testing which is brutal enough on brakes as it is.
 
Like pgaster said, BBC did admit that they "staged" the Tesla running out of battery.

Why did they do this...they claim it was to show what "could" happen if it ran out of charge.

What Tesla is saying though is that BBC didn't really state this on the episode...they made it appear like it went 55 miles and just died, then alluded to the fact that this was real and that it happened. The viewer had no idea that the BBC as pretending the Tesla ran out of juice.

I watched that episode myself when it first aired on BBC America and had no idea they staged that. I am an avid viewer of Top Gear and know that they stage the challenges and stunts all the time, but when they review a car, they are usually pretty honest...they have a huge advantage there because BBC is state run and have no ads. Car companies are not buying ad time on the show.

BBC shopped Top Gear around America for years and at one point wanted Jay Leno to be one of the hosts. Leno declined because he knew Ford, Chevy and Dodge would have ads on the show and he knew he couldn't be non-bias.

I think Tesla has a point here, Top Gear did kind of go out of their way to make it look like there were problems. Some of the other points Tesla is making will have to be sorted out between them and the BBC.
 
I watched the video of this. First, they talk funny on the Top Gear show. They also pay for everything in pennies - this I deduced because they talked about how many pounds of money it takes to fill of a gas tank or charge the Tesla.

That aside, the show did not technically claim the car ran out of charge. They said they "worked out" (estimated) that it would run out of juice after 55 miles on their track - but this was apparently full-throttle racing. They also simulated the car running out of charge. The average viewer could easily conclude that the car did run out of charge and has a range much less than advertised.

Technically, the show didn't lie, but they left a false impression. I think the show will win in court, but Tesla has every right to be steamed - just like I'm steamed as a taxpayer having to subsidize Tesla (big tax credits for buyers of their rip-off car).

UPDATE: I was thinking it was a homosexual show, but someone PMed me and told me they were British. It still doesn't look like a trustworthy show.
 
I just watched the segment on youtube and Tesla is just crying because they didn't do their research. As mentioned several times ago, the crew drives the cars hard and the roadster couldn't handle it as well as real sports cars. For the price Tesla charges, it should work much more reliably.

Great job, Barbra Streisand. Now everyone knows it's not a real sports car.
 
this IS top gear we're talking about. great show, but come on these guys are total goofballs.
 
Top gear is my favorite show, and I think what they did here was inappropriate. I'd prefer they not feed me complete bs if they're going to review a car once or twice a season. Opinion is one thing, misrepresenting the facts and potentially damaging a company's reputation or income is stupid. Its one thing to stage an event for the purposes of pure e:confused:ntertainment, its another to review a car and essentially lie to 350,000,000 people. Yes its turned into a reality TV show at this point, but lying about a product given for review just because JC has some flat-earth ideas is worthy of reprimand. Suing, though? Maybe too far.
 
I don't know why it has to be brought up again. A lot of things have happened already with the show since that Tesla Roadster ep.

Besides it's quite obvious in the driving style how it's possible that the "range" would be greatly reduced. They always have to burn rubber when turning LOL. Remember the McLaren-Mercedes they reviewed? They kept on burning through the rear tires even after they said it cost 1.8k pounds each LOL. And well the reasoning is that if you can afford that car you can afford buying multiple tires lol

They even give "bonus points" for spinning out of control (they don't really "hate" American cars just because they're American for example, and they don't consider the poor handling as "poor handling", but "making things more exciting" LOL).
 
Fuck top gear. I hope Tesla makes them hurt for lible. Top Gear trashes every single American made car unless it has jointly made with Eurotrash. They love making anything made in the USA look half assed all to kiss the ass of European viewers AND their sponcers. Fuck Top Gear and the BBC
 
griff30 said:
Fuck top gear. I hope Tesla makes them hurt for lible. Top Gear trashes every single American made car unless it has jointly made with Eurotrash. They love making anything made in the USA look half assed all to kiss the ass of European viewers AND their sponcers. Fuck Top Gear and the BBC
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Might be because in general they are :p
 
griff30 said:
Fuck top gear. I hope Tesla makes them hurt for lible. Top Gear trashes every single American made car unless it has jointly made with Eurotrash. They love making anything made in the USA look half assed all to kiss the ass of European viewers AND their sponcers. Fuck Top Gear and the BBC
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: Except for the fact that Clarkson actually drives a Corvette. And in reviews comparing a 'Vette with other, how you say, "Eurotrash" cars, even though he said they are better cars, he prefers the 'vette.
 
griff30 said:
Fuck top gear. I hope Tesla makes them hurt for lible. Top Gear trashes every single American made car unless it has jointly made with Eurotrash. They love making anything made in the USA look half assed all to kiss the ass of European viewers AND their sponcers. Fuck Top Gear and the BBC
Click to expand...

:confused: :confused:

Audi v. Corvette they chose the Corvette, their only reservation is that they're not as skilled as the Stig to drive the Corvette around the track at that time, but it's still "more exciting."

Richard is a Yank-fanboy. the Dodge Challenger he brought to the salt flats in Utah was his. His favorite cars are Pagani Zondas and muscle cars.

Ford's are generally well-received by them (Ford is still an American car company...)
 
When Jeremy Clarkson wants to trash a car he does exactly that.

I can see why Tesla are feeling the hurt. Fact remains that Clarkson usually responds with a second mini-review of sorts to manufacturers claiming that they were hard done in the original review. If he is right he should have done just that in Tesla's case. That's the only part i think he's got wrong.
 
TwistedAegis said:
:rolleyes: Except for the fact that Clarkson actually drives a Corvette. And in reviews comparing a 'Vette with other, how you say, "Eurotrash" cars, even though he said they are better cars, he prefers the 'vette.
Click to expand...

LOL yeah, forgot to add his favorite car is actually the Ford GT, which he prefers over his Mercedes Benz.
 
pgaster said:
"Specifically, Top Gear misrepresented that:
1. The Roadster ran out of charge and had to be pushed into the Top Gear hangar by 4 men.
2. The Roadster’s true range is only 55 miles per charge (not 211).
3. One Roadster’s motor overheated and was completely immobilized as a result.
4. The other Roadster’s brakes were broken, rendering the car undriveable.
5. That neither of the two Roadsters provided to Top Gear was available for test driving due to these problems.

The breakdowns were staged and the statements are untrue. "


Why would Top Gear stage these things? I don't get it.
Click to expand...
The idea behind the stage was to show what would happen when the battery does run out. Remember, these cars have no gas engine to kick in once the battery runs dry. They are just showing the inevitable.

The problem is, they didn't bother waiting for the battery to die, just to film them pushing it into the garage. So they just pushed it, when it still had a charge.

I side with Top Gear on this one. They're trying to prove a point, a very realistic one might I add. Telsa just does what any corporation does when they get a bad review, and that's sue that crap out of them. I especially have no love for Telsa, cause they haven't made cheap electric cars for Joe Sixpack to buy. They exist for the super rich.
 
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