- Tesla Motors sued the BBC's Top Gear on Tuesday for libel and "malicious falsehood" after a scathing — and allegedly rigged — 2008 review of the electric Tesla Roadster.
- "It's just a shame that, in the real world, it doesn't seem to work," said Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson during the controversial December 14, 2008 program that critiqued the Tesla Roadster and depicted several "breakdowns."
- The British Broadcasting Company, which owns and airs Top Gear, would only say "we can confirm that we have received notification that Tesla have issued proceedings against the BBC" when contacted on Wednesday by Inside Line.
LONDON — Tesla Motors sued the BBC's Top Gear on Tuesday for libel and "malicious falsehood" after a scathing and allegedly misleading 2008 review of the electric Tesla Roadster that aired more than two years ago. If Tesla wins its case, it has the potential to be a precedent-setting ruling with global implications, threatening to muzzle car reviewers, especially those with a flair for the dramatic.
"The first electric car that you might actually want to buy, it's just a shame that, in the real world, it doesn't seem to work," said Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson to the studio audience during the controversial December 14, 2008 program that critiqued the Tesla Roadster and depicted several "breakdowns."
"I tried to be fair, I did try."
Top Gear co-host Richard Hammond says: "It's not good, though, is it?"
Rarely do automakers bring out the big legal guns when angered by a less-than-flattering vehicle review. Most of the time, they limit the damage-control effort to behind-the-scenes scrambling to get negative reviews softened or pulled from a show or publication.
But Tesla Motors is taking a high-profile, multipronged and systematic approach to battling Top Gear. It posted a stamped copy (http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/default/files/tesla_-_claim_form_claimants_copy_29_03_11.pdf) of the lawsuit filed in London's High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, on its Web site, along with an image of the Tesla Roadster parked in front of London's iconic red telephone booths. The image is entitled Tesla Vs. Top Gear. An accompanying blog post by Ricardo Reyes, the vice president of communications for Tesla Motors, contends that the Top Gear episode critiquing the Tesla Roadster "contained lies and misinformation about the Roadster's performance, behaviour (sic) and reliability."
He added: "Tesla simply wants Top Gear to stop rebroadcasting this malicious episode and to correct the record, but they've repeatedly ignored Tesla's requests."
The lawsuit is for "unspecified" damages. Tesla has been fighting to get the Roadster episode quashed since it debuted. At the time, the BBC, which owns Top Gear, said it stood by the review and that it offered a "fair representation of the Tesla's performance on the day it was tested."
The British Broadcasting Company would only say, "we can confirm that we have received notification that Tesla have issued proceedings against the BBC" when contacted on Wednesday by Inside Line.
Among the sore points in the Top Gear program is a scene that shows the Tesla Roadster allegedly running out of charge and being pushed into the Top Gear hangar by men, as well as a contention that the Roadster's brakes were broken. The lawsuit describes these events as "falsities" and says they were done "to bolster a pre-judged, pre-determined and pre-scripted adverse verdict on the Roadster."
The lawsuit says that Don Cochrane, Tesla's U.K. director of sales and marketing, saw a Top Gear script "written before the Roadster had been driven at all which concluded with the words, 'It's just a shame that in the real world, it absolutely doesn't work.'"
The lawsuit also contends that "the reason the Roadster was pushed into the hanger (sic) was for the purpose of presenting the false impression it had run out of charge." It described the scene as a "lie."
This is not the first time that Top Gear has driven too close to the edge, noted the Daily Mail on Wednesday. Last month, the BBC was forced to apologize (http://www.insideline.com/car-news/top-gears-offensive-comments-on-mexico-prompt-half-hearted-apology-from-bbc.html) after Top Gear's hosts insulted Mexicans in one broadcast, portraying them as "lazy."
Inside Line says: Not exactly the Clash of the Titans, but one of the most fascinating automotive legal battles in recent memory. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
Add A Comment »
dgmail says:
12:51 PM, 03/31/2011
Top Gear hates Tesla?
So what.
Edmunds and Leinerts hate American brand anything.
ionlydrivesrts says:
12:31 PM, 03/31/2011
Did tesla think for even a second top gear wouldn't give their utmost honest opinion. They are people that wouldn't hesitate to call a ferrari garbage lol
gantra says:
08:53 AM, 03/31/2011
Honestly, Tesla has got to be kidding. Elon Musk is such a little baby. All they do is draw more attention to the episode and lend it GREATER significance.
Whether the scene with them pushing the car was staged doesn't really matter. Much of the show is scripted for dramatic effect. What matters is does the car only last around 50 miles when racing it like the show states? Is the handling inferior to the petro Lotus? etc. etc. The charging TopGear referred to was from a standard plug. You can use higher voltage plugs to get shorter charge times which they did not mention. That's their option.
Whether TopGear adjusts the show to dramatize things is quite beside the point since the material claims they make are, I presume, factual. We'll see in court.
I like Tesla and hope they succeed but the management under Musk is really screwed up when it comes to PR. Just look at the very public name calling between Musk and the original founder.
motorstreet says:
08:43 AM, 03/31/2011
I think this is a waste of Tesla's time and could put them out of business, they need to acknowledge that their first car had serious drawbacks ($120000+, heavy, terrible reliability) and focus on making the Model S fast, reliable, and capable of long distances. Maybe the RAV4 EV will be better, but considering that it has the Tesla's batteries and engine it will probably cost $80000.
blurglide says:
08:06 AM, 03/31/2011
The complaint isn't that the review was negative- it's that the problems were fabricated. It didn't stop on the track without warning, and the video of people pushing it was staged- it had battery charge at that time.
northsparrow says:
07:52 AM, 03/31/2011
bmw_m5 says
"At least the Tesla isn't made in Mexico."
If the company gets really up and running following a generous contribution from the US taxpayer (with
money borrowed from the Chinese) who knows where Teslas will eventually be made.
jjp7216 says:
07:40 AM, 03/31/2011
Top Gear is the romper room of auto journalism - GET OVER IT! Second thought if you can't laugh at yourself maybe it's true.
e90_m3 says:
05:41 AM, 03/31/2011
My extremely limited knowledge on the British Common Law tells me that when plaintiffs lose, they will frequently be held liable for the court costs and the legal expenses of the defendants. (Why can't we do that here?)
I hope BBC hires the biggest and baddest barristers and put Tesla in their place.
poorjoe says:
05:08 AM, 03/31/2011
Filing a lawsuit against Top Gear and the BBC is cheaper than buying the advertising it would take to get the same press coverage.
Oh, and to tonkatoytruck, hydrogen filling stations would be fairly cheap (relatively, anyway) as gasoline filling stations are required to change out their tanks periodiacally already - just replace them with, or add, hydrogen filling capabilities. How great would a car be that makes its own water for a nice whiskey-and-water when the driving is done?
nelsonlu says:
02:59 AM, 03/31/2011
This lawsuit should become vapor, just as Tesla's products are likely to be, too.