Tesla Sues Top Gear Over Rigged Review

Tesla gets electric over old Top Gear review.

It's a rather eye-catching part of the video that indicates that the Roadster ran out of battery power after just 55 miles, in the middle of a drag race. As it turns out, the Roadster never ran out of battery and the test was, well, somewhat rigged - depending on your perspective.

BBC claims that the claim that the car ran out of battery was never made, just hinted to what would happen in such a case. You'd have to push it back to your garage. Tesla apparently asked the Top Gear team to correct the statements made in order to correct the impression that review can leave with viewers. That has not happened and the result is now a lawsuit. On the track, Clarkson said, the car "would" run out of juice after just 55 miles. "Would" is, of course, the keyword here. 55 miles would also require the car to be driven pretty hard. Our own experience is that the Tesla Roadster is close to about 180 - 200 miles in an everyday driving pattern.

Tesla noted that the Roadster never dropped below 20% charge at any time of the test, which also indicates that the Top Gear test, if Clarkson's math is correct, covered only about 40 - 45 miles, which may not be enough to make an assessment what the range of the car really is. I am pretty sure that Top Gear won't retract on the statements made as they claim that they never said the car ran out of battery.