Tesla Sues BBC And Top Gear For Roadster Test Claiming It Was Rigged

If you are a fan of cars odds are you have watched an episode of Top Gear or two. I'm not talking about the fail packed American version, but the long running BBC version. I really like the show and think those guys are pretty funny, even if they are often American car hating douchebags. Tesla doesn't like the show at all though.

On an episode back in 2008, Top Gear put the Tesla Roadster in a race against the Lotus Elise with a gasoline engine. The Tesla is based on the Lotus car. Things went all fine and dandy for Tesla until Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkston claimed the Roadster ran out of power at 55 miles. The show then offered footage of the Clarkston and two others pushing the car around.

Tesla is suing the show and BBC for defamation. Tesla has maintained since shortly after the show that the Roadster never ran out of power and never needed to be pushed. The BBC has apparently admitted that the segment was to show what could happen and still claims that Top Gear showed a fair representation of how the Tesla performed. Tesla for its part says that still today years after the show aired it still has customers ask questions based on that episode.

[via Jalopnik]