Tesla sues Top Gear !

[Olli]

Just read that this morning:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-30/carmaker-tesla-sues-bbc-s-top-gear-over-electric-roadster-test.html

U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) sued the British Broadcasting Corp.’s “Top Gear” show alleging libel and malicious falsehood.

Tesla claims the show, one of the broadcaster’s most successful programs, faked a scene that appeared to show Tesla’s Roadster car running out of energy, according to papers filed at the High Court in London yesterday.

Tesla, which has lost money every year since it was founded in 2003, is seeking to become the leader in battery-powered cars, aided by supply agreements with Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and Daimler AG. (DAI) The Palo Alto, California-based company said last month its fourth-quarter net loss widened to $51.4 million from $23.2 million a year earlier as it increased investment in the Model S, an electric sedan due in 2012.

In the Top Gear report, first broadcast in December 2008, presenter Jeremy Clarkson said that, even though the car is “biblically quick,” and “the first electric car you might actually want to buy,” its range is limited.

“Although Tesla say it will do 200 miles, we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles and if it does run out it’s not a quick job to charge it up again,” Clarkson said, according to a transcript of the show included in the filing.

The report showed the car being pushed into a hangar, according to the suit. Tesla said the Roadster that was pushed into the hangar hadn’t run out of power and didn’t need to be pushed. Top Gear’s allegation that the car’s range is 55 miles is defamatory because it suggests Tesla “grossly misled potential purchasers of the Roadster,” the filing said.

International Audience
Top Gear has a U.K. audience of around 6 million viewers and an international audience of 350 million, the broadcaster says. It is viewed in more than 100 countries and has been the most-viewed show on BBC2 for a decade.

This is the second time in less than a year the program has become involved in a High Court lawsuit. In August, the BBC sued News Corp. (NWSA)’s HarperCollins to block it from disclosing the real name of the “Stig,” the race driver who tested cars on the show with the visor of his helmet down to hide his identity.

“We can confirm that we have received notification that Tesla have issued proceedings against the BBC,” the broadcaster said in an e-mailed statement. “The BBC stands by the program and will be vigorously defending this claim.”

Nigel Tait, a partner at London law firm Carter-Ruck, said in a message that he made the claim on behalf of Tesla.

The case is: HQ11D01162, Tesla Motors Limited & ors vs. British Broadcasting Corp.

[Olli]

IMHO:
It is sad that Topgear is making false statements especially in a time where there is definitely a need for greener cars and Tesla is by far the company that makes the best looking and most likely fastest electric powered vehicles so far.
Well, IF Top Gear made incorrect statements that is.

[WildHareMS]

Kind of thinking that the ownership of Tesla is really just trying to gain publicity/notoriety with this lawsuit. I really rather doubt that the TG team did something malicious or falsified the test results.

I'm fully believing that Hammond, May & Clarkson all take care not to make defamatory remarks, especially ones that make it off the cutting room floor. The BBC doesn't strike me as one of the companies that let's many employees put them in a bad position by making statements that have liable all over them.


Long live Top Gear BBC!!!

[dkbmxer002]

top gear stage something that is complete bullshit?!?!?!? no way...



sorry, i'm sick of the top gear nut riders.. lol

[Bob808]

The TG boys are always over critical and exaggerate a lot, but what do they have to gain from it? Nothing. I'm certain the TG film crew would have footage to back up what Clarkson said, and when that footage is shown, Tesla will be made to look like assholes.

[Nexus]

Well fake or not it's exagerated.
Read closely again, the company looses money! So they are just trying to find a way to get money and most of all interest to the general public back!!!

Show was aired on December 2008!!!! We are in March 2011!!! hhhheeelllllooooo?????!!!!!! Is there not something wrong?

Let's follow this closely, the ending might be interesting.

To me Tesla claim 200 miles of autonomy but driving mostly like a grand ma I guess! And BBC might run the hell out of the car, which run out of battery in 55 miles. Simple as this!

[Sephy]

Yeah they were thrashing it around on a track of course it will run out faster!

[Sylon04]

Who isnt suing Top Gear these days? lol

[PrimalOrB]

me?
should i be?

i could use some money!!!

[Bluedemon]

Actually thought this was an early April Fools joke when I first saw it, I don't see anything coming of this suit, Tesla is late to the show and I think that the way Clarkson was driving the car probably did run the car out after 55 miles or so. And he is right it does take a while to charge up, so Tesla will be the next company to crash and burn. Which is to bad considering the car is actually cool, but like always to expensive and the economy just can't handle to many $100,000 vehicles.

[Sylon04]

LMAO, BBC America is playing this episode right now :rofl:

[PrimalOrB]

http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2011/04/02/tesla-vs-top-gear-andy-wilman-on-our-current-legal-action/

Andy Wilman comments on the lawsuit


Andy Wilman Top Gear

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.

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:

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.

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.

[Sephy]

That was a good read.

[Olli]

that surely was a good read.
Let´s see the outcome of this :-)

[WildHareMS]

Loved that reply from the folks behind Top Gear. Whoever had the great idea of trying to sue Top Gear based on the review they made needs a good surgeon to get the one foot out of their mouth so it can further be surgically implated in their rectum.


IMO

[Bob808]

Loved that reply from the folks behind Top Gear. Whoever had the great idea of trying to sue Top Gear based on the review they made needs a good surgeon to get the one foot out of their mouth so it can further be surgically implated in their rectum.


IMO

It's the American way... sue first, retract statements later. I hope it goes to court and Tesla are made to look like idiots. Not that it'll stop stupid American hippy do-gooders from buying them.

[Sephy]

It's the American way... sue first, retract statements later. I hope it goes to court and Tesla are made to look like idiots. Not that it'll stop stupid American hippy do-gooders from buying them.

Truth.

[Nexus]

Really good read on this.
Let's see how it goes now!
And Bob sais the truth!!!!

I don't believe in 100% electrical car at all. It need to be hybrid. Not only with petrol but with Nitrogen.
I got more believe in Nitrogen fueled car, than in 100% electrical car, as for nitrogen mileage, time to renitro (refuel if you prefer!), for the future!

edit :
I post this as a reminder for all!
<object width='670' height='377' classid='clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000' id='SFID016554228495806456'><param name='movie' value='http://www.streetfire.net/flash/SPlayer.swf' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' /><param name='allowScriptAccess' value='always' /><param name='wmode' value='transparent' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='FlashVars' value='video=9109c379-489d-4315-84ae-9b75010d3227&servicecfg=386'/><embed src='http://www.streetfire.net/flash/SPlayer.swf' flashvars='video=9109c379-489d-4315-84ae-9b75010d3227&servicecfg=386' allowfullscreen='true' wmode='transparent' width='670' height='377' allowscriptaccess='always' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' /></object><br/><a href='top-gear-reviews-tesla-roadster_206233.htm'>Top Gear reviews Tesla Roadster</a>