Tesla Roadster Reviewed by Jeremy Clarkson Didn't Run Out of Juice as He Claimed
Last week Jeremy Clarkson, Britain's most famous auto reviewer, reviewed a Tesla Roadster.
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Clarkson and crew pushing Roadster after it supposedly ran out of electricity.
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His test drive was recorded on video and appeared on Britain's Top Gear Web site, which is owned by BBC Worldwide Ltd. The video also appeared on YouTube as well as many dozens of automotive Web sites and blogs.
Why? For one thing, because Clarkson has attained celebrity status in many circles, but moreover because he claimed -- and the video apparently showed -- that the much-publicized $109,000 battery-electric Roadster ran out of juice after only 55 miles and then broke down!
Shocking! Outrageous! And sure to generate maximum exposure for Clarkson.
Except the Roadster, which its U.S. manufacturer claims can go 220 miles on a charge, didn't run out of electricity and didn't break down. Those two salient bits of information were fabricated. As in made up. As in didn't really happen.
OK. So Clarkson would appear to be more interested in his popularity than, say, the truth. And he would appear not to care that his reviews have financial consequences -- for the people who make, invest in, own or have placed deposits on the cars he reviews.
So Clarkson's a bum, some might say, for the reasons just mentioned and for tarnishing the reputations of Top Gear and the BBC. Some might say, Big deal, like tabloid journalism wasn't born in England!
Bad Journalism
But here's what's most distressing to real journalists and people who value good journalism: The BBC -- a supposed rock of journalistic excellence -- has done all it can to bury the story of its video.
We challenge you to find a copy of it on the Web right now (update: see Comments, below). It could be found all over the Web last week, but this week? Sorry.
Well here's what's up with that: If you want to get a company that doesn't own the copyright to a video to stop showing the video, you threaten to sue for copyright infringement.
And that's what the BBC has done. The video was widely posted on YouTube last week, but today this is all we were able to find in the YouTube spaces the video had occupied:
"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by BBC Worldwide Ltd."
Now it is possible that the video still appears somewhere on YouTube -- and please tell us if you locate it -- but that sentence prompted by the BBC is all we could find (and we did see it multiple times) when we conducted our search earlier today.
As for the photo appearing here that was taken from the video? The one showing Clarkson beside the driver's door and other people at the rear of the Roadster pushing into a garage after it reportedly but untruthfully ran out of electricity?
Uh, huh. Sure.
A spokeswoman for Top Gear said the car was videotaped being pushed in order to show what would happen if the Roadster had run out of charge. That's interesting, because nowhere in the video were there words to that effect.
But if you believe her explanation, we've got a bridge we'd like to sell you.
Not to make a federal case out of this, but we did seek comment from Tesla about Clarkson's review. Company spokeswoman Rachel Konrad told us today that the portion of the review dealing with the short driving range and brake failure baffled the folks at the automaker's headquarters in San Carlos, California.
Each Roadster is equipped with a memory stick that acts much like a flight data recorder does, she said. That would be the so-called "black box" that accident investigators are always eager to get their mitts on when a jetliner goes down because it records systems information that might help them determine the cause of the crash.
The Roadster's memory stick works much the same way, constantly recording systems data when the sports car is in use. While Clarkson said the silver Roadster he was driving (he briefly tested a dark-gray one as well) had run out of power after only 55 miles, the vehicle's memory stick said otherwise.
Indeed, neither of the two Roadsters Clarkson drove had less than a 20 percent state of charge while the vehicles were in Clarkson's control, Konrad said, "So we at Tesla were all a bit perplexed as to why they aired footage of Clarkson and crew pushing one into a garage."
"Now we have an answer," she said.
- Posted by
- Scott Doggett December 22, 2008, 9:43 AM
- Permalink
- Categories:
- Batteries, Emissions, Fuel Economy, Plug-ins and Electric, Tesla
- Technorati Tags:
- Electric Vehicle, Jeremy Clarkson, Tesla Roadster, Top Gear, Zero Emission
That makes him the biggest liar..................in the world!
(read with Clarkson style intonation)
Sounds like somebody could be brought up on slander charges.
Love the bridge comment.
Ah ha! One of our astute readers found a copy of the video online. Our hope is that by leaving a link to the video out of our story, it will remain under the radar of the BBC. The video can be found at: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Top-Gear-Season-12-7-full_206085.htm
Clarkson's comments on the Roadster start 17:35 into the video.
Thanks gotzip, I just watched the video. Actually, here is exactly what Jeremy said: "we worked out that on our track it would run out in just 55 miles ....and if it does run out, it's not a quick job to fill it up again." So, they do not really say that they ran out, just that they estimated that it will run out in 55 miles, based on their track testing. And they are running this thing flat out. So, I'm not sure I don't believe that. Running the car in a more normal driving situation would probably result in much longer run times.
Concerning the breakdown due to over-heating, and the brakes not working, it is really not possible to know for sure. Despite the problems, he did give the car pretty high marks in other areas considering his normal anti-green viewpoints.
Have to add one more thing ... if you do go and watch this episode, be sure and see the very end of it for James May's review of the Honda FCX Clarity. This is about the best piece I have seen on the Clarity anywhere. Jay Leno chimes in as well. And yes, Jeremy says that this car will save the world ...imagine that.
Pedaian, thanks for clarifying the situation.
However, you're the exception. Most people watching the video would have believed that the Tesla broke down. Top Gear knew this and produced the piece, with the intention to mislead viewers. That's not journalism. Hopefully, the world will wake up and realize what a blow hard Clarkson is.
Btw: I'm far from a Tesla fanboy.
All -- Re the "we worked it out..." comment. If you watch the video you'll note that just before the bit in which the crew pushed the Tesla into the garage, Clarkson is on the track in it and, omygosh!, appears to run out of juice. That little scene sort of wipes out the explanation that they were just trying to show what could happen if....
Also, re Tesla range: It probably is the case that it only has 50-60 miles in it if run flat out and nonstop on a track. The First Drive (http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=124716), review of the Roadster commented that the claimed 220-mile range was more like 150 if you drove it fairly aggressively on the street. Hard use on a track could easily cut that by half or more.
And on that bombshell...
Get a grip people, Top Gear is a light hearted comedy car show, not the nightly news.
Like pedaian said they explained what they did and pushing was likely just for a laugh.
Sounds to me like Tesla is looking for some free PR to take the attention away from their other problems.
I've been listening to Tesla hype for years but have yet to see a 3rd party test to see if it could even come close to it's claims.
Right now all we have is poor handling Lotus Elise for twice the price.
Clarkson has more in his Sunday Times article today :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article5483422.ece
He says that they worked out it would have only gone for 55 miles and so they brought it in with 20% left on the battery (ie presumably after 44 miles of driving).
"Tesla, when contacted by reporters, gave its account of what happened and it was exactly the same as ours. It explained that the brakes had stopped working because of a blown fuse and didn’t question at all our claim that the car would have run out of electricity after 55 miles. "
Oh, and you've got to like this bit :
"[The] Tesla works only at dinner parties. Tell someone you have one and in minutes you will be [making love]. But as a device for moving you and your things around, it is about as much use as a bag of muddy spinach. "
Let me start by saying that I'm a believer in the electric car idea.
The only "bad journalism" here is that of Green Car Journal, along with the others who misrepresented what Clarkson said on the program. He never claimed that the Tesla Roadster ran out of juice while testing it. The retraction is yours to make, not his.
What Clarkson's program did was extrapolated when it would have run out, based on what the power gauge read. Fact is, Tesla is selling a car with a 55-mile range and claiming it's a 200-plus mile range.
Tesla has been a monumental hype job from the word go. They are an archetypal Silicon Valley vaporware merchant. They were more than a year late with a car that doesn't even come close to meeting its original specs or even its stripped-down claims.
This sort of thing is the coin of the realm in the computer world. Claims are routinely inflated beyond recognition. The Tesla people come from that world, where there are no consequences associated with quadrupling your performance numbers and coming out a year or two late.
The car market is very different. It is highly competitive, and performance standards are high. Green Car Journal obviously has a vested interest in passing along lies, or thinks it does, and in Tesla's case there appears to be a group of customers for whom money is no object and brains not required.
But the rest of us car nuts out here are not so generous. One of these years, I intend to buy an electric vehicle, but when I do so I want that thing to work the way it was advertised. And guess what, Green Car Journal? I doubt I'm going to pay the slightest bit of attention to anything you say, because your rant against Jeremy Clarkson tells me that you've got Tesla's hype hook buried so far down your gullet than it's coming out the other end.
I'll be looking for an electric car made by a car company, not a computer merchant, and I'll read reviews by people who have the guts to stand up and tell the truth. Which isn't you.
Speaking of accuracy, I need to make a correction. I read too quickly and called "Green Car Advisor" by the wrong name. There is something called "Gree Car Journal," but they're different. This is my error, and I apologize for it. But note the time stamp. I corrected my error within a few minutes.
Let me just reiterate one thing: Welcome to the real world of the automotive consumer. We drive cars, not press releases. Tesla and its fan club had better remember it.
I LIKE CLARCKSON! HES REAL! AND HAVE ALL HIS DVDS
WISH I COULD MEET THE BUGGER!
GREG BERLIN RENO NV.
JERAMY IS A RARE BIRD IVE BEEN TOLD SOOM DONT LIKE HIM!!!i do!! love his dvds.
greg berlin reno nv.