UK TV Show Top Gear sued again, this time by Tesla

Geeks love Top Gear, especially for the witty, politically incorrect comments of Jeremy Clarkson. Tesla Motors are suing them for allegedly falsely representing the performance of one of their cars.

In a segment which aired three years ago, Top Gear showed a Tesla Roadster running out of electric charge during a race with the gas powered Lotus Elise, a car that the Roadster is based on. Tesla claim that neither of the two cars it loaned to Top Gear dropped under 20 percent charge. It now wants the BBC to stop airing the segment as it is damaging the company reputation.

Tesla said in a statement “When ‘Top Gear' reviewed the Tesla Roadster, the episode that aired contained lies and misinformation about the Roadster's performance, behavior, and reliability. Tesla reluctantly took legal action after its repeated attempts to contact the BBC, over the course of months, were ignored.”

A spokesperson for Top Gear defended the show and said “We can confirm that we have received notification that Tesla have issued proceedings against the BBC. The BBC stands by the program and will be vigorously defending this claim.”

Top Gear claim the car had only 55 miles per charge, but Tesla say its 211 miles per charge. Top Gear showed other problems, such as the broken brakes and overheating engines. Tesla claim these problems were staged and not true.

KitGuru says: Tesla are claiming £100,000 in damages from Top Gear and they want them to remove the segment from programming and to correct the misrepresentation.

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