Tesla Sues Top Gear For Libel

[God_speed]

Fair enough.

95% of the time it's pretty clear with TopGear when they're taking the piss, but sometimes it's not so clear cut. They'd still have a fair bit of clout in influencing people's purchase decisions

Lol at Jackie Chiles. Everything can be tied back to Seinfeld.

[Thelen]

jeremy changes his mind like a bitch on pms

What do you mean, 'like'? He is one of the most annoying people I've ever seen.

[PM-R33]

What do you mean, 'like'? He is one of the most entertaining people I've ever seen.

Fixed.

[Birds]

Saw two of these cars in the flesh today...they look absolutely amazing. Had everyone around it looking on. Thought it was an Elise at first, but it was a bit too long and the rear end didn't look right. On closer inspection the letters T E S L A on the back had me Googling what it was and then I remembered this thread. 0-100 in 4 seconds! Shame about the price tag because at half the price I'd snap one up.

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

if the breakdown's were staged then tesla have every right to sue the pants off topgear... imho

[XRATED]

As somone who has driven one of the early Tesla's- top gear did go a little too far.

The early model roadster then the 4 door, were the fastest point and squirt cars I've ever driven! Increadable instant torque.... there's somthing spookey about frying tyres almost silently.

But hey- any publicity is good publicity!

[pistol-pete]

Top Gear producer Andy Wilman on the Tesla issue

You may know that Tesla has issued a writ against Top Gear for defamation and malicious falsehood over the road test that we broadcast of the Tesla Roadster in December 2008. The normal procedure for the BBC in a legal case is to acknowledge receipt of the other party's claim, and then say no more and get on with preparing its defence for court.Tesla, however, doesn't seem content to wait for the legal eagles to settle matters. On the contrary, it's been very busy promoting its side of the argument through the media. Why even last night the Top Gear office accidentally received an email sent from a Public Relations firm to The One Show, asking if it would like to have the Tesla spokesperson on their programme to talk about the case. It says: "PHA Media represent Tesla and this could make for a fantastic interview." And the PHA man's not finished there. "The presenters could have some fun with this." He adds. "Matt and Alex could even take the Tesla for a spin and test it out, reaffirming its virtues?" Plenty of respect for editorial independence in that last line there and I wish the chaps from PHA Media all the best in their crusade.

1. We never said that the Tesla's true range is only 55 miles, as opposed to their own claim of 211, or that it had actually ran out of charge. In the film our actual words were: "We calculated that on our track it would run out after 55 miles". The first point here is that the track is where we do our tests of sports cars and supercars, as has happened ever since Top Gear existed. This is where cars are driven fast and hard, and since Tesla calls its roadster "The Supercar. Redefined." it seemed pretty logical to us that the right test was a track test. The second point is that the figure of 55 miles came not from our heads, but from Tesla's boffins in California. They looked at the data from that car and calculated that, driven hard on our track, it would have a range of 55 miles.However, back to Top Gear, and yes, normally we would follow the pre-legal etiquette of keeping schtum until we get our day in court, but since the other side are being quite noisy with their views on how we conduct ourselves, I just would like to point out one or two things to Top Gear viewers:

2. We never said that the Tesla was completely immobilized as a result of the motor overheating. We said the car had "reduced power". This was true.

3. Tesla claims we were lying when we said the brakes were "broken". They now say that all that had happened was that the fuse to the vacuum pump had failed, which meant that the brake just had to be pushed down much harder than usual. Well – to my mind, if the brakes are broken, then they're broken, and if this happened to your car, you'd take it to the garage to get it fixed. Odd it seems so trivial to Tesla now, because on the day of filming they insisted on repairing the fuse before we could carry on driving the car.

The above points will be argued over in the near future by brainy people wearing wigs, but in a layman's nutshell, this is where we stand on the matter. Before I finish though, I must clear up one important issue: scripting. It's alleged by Tesla that on the day of filming one of their employees caught sight of a script that had been written, before the car had even been driven, already containing the verdict that in the "real world" the Tesla doesn't work. This, they say, proves our guilt, because we'd condemned the car in advance. May I just say in reply:

a) The truth is, Top Gear had already driven the car prior to filming, to enable us to form a view on it in advance

b) Our primary reasoning behind the verdict had nothing to do with how the Tesla performed; our conclusion was based mainly on the fact that it costs three times more than the petrol sports car upon which it's based. It takes a long time to recharge, so you can't use it as easily for the carefree motoring journeys that are a prerequisite of sports car driving. You can actually reach that conclusion without driving the car. As it happens, when it did come to the subjective area of how the car drove on the track, we were full of praise for its performance and handling.

c) Just so you understand there's nothing devious going on, you need to know how this filming business works. When you film a car review, the reviewer is only the tip of the iceberg. Behind the lens is a film crew, and only a day's worth of light to shoot the eight minute film. This means we have to prepare in advance a treatment – a rough draft of a script so that the director and film crew can get to work right away, knowing what shots they will need to capture. It will contain the facts about a car, and what we think of its looks and so on, but how well the car actually drives is added on the day. If we've driven it ahead of filming, as we do with most cars, we will also have an idea how it feels to drive. But, and this is crucial, as we uncover fresh information about a car whilst filming it, it is entirely normal for the treatment to be modified as the day unfolds. Jeremy is always tweaking the scripts to reflect what his driving experience has actually been on the day.

There you go. I've said my bit, and now we'll hopefully shut up and prepare for our day in court.

PS: As this is going through the courts right now, we're afraid we've had to turn off comments on this one, but we wanted to let you all know how we see it.

Andy Wilman is the Executive Producer of Top Gear

[Silvia GTR]

I stopped watching top gear a while ago, I always thought there was stretched stories attached to their 'reviews'.

[PM-R33]

Top Gear producer Andy Wilman on the Tesla issue

Well that certainly changes things a bit doesn't it.

[Galois]

... But why did they wait 2 years to sue? That was in the news when it came out as being falsified, and environmentalists everywhere went crazy. Well, keyboard warrior crazy anyways

[God_speed]

Maybe over the last 2 years Tesla's sales figures are below their expectations and they've had some anecdotal 'fears' from prospective customers citing the Top Gear episode - brakes 'failing', lower-than-claimed range, recharging time, etc.