More trouble for Top Gear team as show is sued over 'rigged' electric car test



Shame: Presenter Jeremy Clarkson is said to have delivered a scripted pay-off line before the car had been tested

They have rarely worried about who they might offend, but this time the Top Gear team may have driven too close to the edge.

Only months after insulting the whole of Mexico, the BBC’s flagship motoring show has been accused by the U.S. maker of the world’s fastest production electric car of faking a race.

Tesla Motors Inc yesterday issued a writ at the High Court over an episode featuring ‘the ultimate test for an electric car’ – a drag race between its Roadster and a petrol-powered Lotus Elise.

It was a test the Tesla – which has a top speed of 125mph and is favoured by film stars including George Clooney – appeared to fail after dramatically slowing down on the track and being pushed into a garage to await charging.

Presenter Jeremy Clarkson concluded: ‘It’s just a shame that in the real world it doesn’t seem to work.’

Now Tesla – a Californian company that builds its cars in the UK – is claiming defamation and malicious falsehood, saying the scenes were faked. Top Gear’s allegations that the brakes had also broken were false, it claimed.

The company said it became aware of the staging of the scene when its UK director of sales and marketing saw two scripts before the car had even been driven.

One of the scripts concluded with virtually the same pay-off line used by Clarkson. ‘It’s just a shame that in the real world it absolutely doesn’t work,’ it read.

Tesla also challenged Top Gear ‘about another script which called for the Roadster to be filmed being pushing into the hangar having run out of charge’.

It made its claim more than two years after the £87,000 Tesla Roadster – which can be powered from an ordinary domestic plug – was featured on the show.

The company decided to take action after the episode, originally broadcast in December 2008, featured on repeats and a DVD – despite pointing out the alleged errors to Top Gear’s production team.

Tesla claimed Top Gear ‘intentionally and/or recklessly, grossly misled potential purchasers of the Roadsters’.

Its reputation ‘has been severely damaged’, it added.

Last night, Tesla spokesman Myra Pasek told the Daily Mail: ‘We have repeatedly complained about the inaccuracies and have asked the BBC to correct them, but they ignored us. The BBC’s conduct has given us no choice but to sue them and clear up their lies.’

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that we have received notification that Tesla have issued proceedings against the BBC.’

The libel case follows the complaint by the Mexican ambassador in January after Top Gear presenters made ‘xenophobic’ and ‘offensive’ comments. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza demanded an apology after Richard Hammond – jokingly – described Mexicans as ‘lazy, feckless, flatulent [and] overweight’.

Clarkson had suggested the ambassador would be too busy sleeping to complain.







