As the richest man in the world, Elon Musk has made quite a name for himself. With more money than most of us could ever spend, you’d be wise to try not to get on Musk’s bad side in terms of legal matters. Let’s be honest, he’s got the money to sue you into oblivion.
The Tesla CEO has proved this time and again, with the likes of his ongoing custody battle with Grimes, arguments with Twitter staff over severance pay, and offering to fund Gina Carano’s lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company for her termination from The Mandalorian.
Musk proved he wasn’t to be messed with when Tesla tried to sue the BBC over a 2008 episode of Top Gear. The famous car series was at its peak back then, with then-lead host Jeremy Clarkson reviewing the Tesla Roadster.
Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear got into hot water with Tesla in 2008 (BBC)
Released in 2008, the Tesla Roadster was based on the Lotus Elise chassis and grabbed headlines as the first highway-legal, all-electric car that used lithium-ion battery cells. Clarkson praised the Roadster’s acceleration and handling by calling it ‘biblically quick’, but claimed that it suddenly ran out of charge after just 55 miles. There’s even footage of the production crew pushing the Roadster back to the garage, although Tesla claimed that’s not what happened at all.
Tesla engineers reviewed the footage and claimed that the car’s logs proved it never dropped below 20% charge. The brake failure was apparently a blown fuse, but as the controversy rumbled on and major outlets started to report on it, the BBC released the following statement: “The tested Tesla was filmed being pushed into the shed in order to show what would happen if the Roadster had run out of charge.
“Top Gear stands by the findings in this film and is content that it offers a fair representation of the Tesla’s performance on the day it was tested.”
Clarkson wrote a blog entry for The Times and referred to filming as ‘muddy’, while reruns continued to be aired without editing. Tesla also said that the script was written before filming had happened, suggesting the issues were created for production.
The $171,000 lie that could have killed Tesla: Top Gear, the world’s biggest car show, faked a negative review of the Tesla Roadster. Most companies would have stayed quiet. Tesla chose war. Here’s the full story:
Tesla sued the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood in March 2011, saying it had lost $171,000 in sales, also launching the TeslaVsTopGear.com. website. When it headed to the High Court, Judge Martin Moore-Bick sided with the BBC and said that no one watching the series would think it’s a real-world representation of Tesla because it’s an ‘entertainment’ series. Tesla appealed, but as things went to the Court of Appeal, a three-judge panel upheld Moore-Bick’s decision and ordered Tesla to pay the BBC’s $ legal costs of £100,000 ($172,000 in today’s money).
Despite the loss, this David vs Goliath case is actually thought to have helped the young electric vehicle company. As well as exposing how some car reviews might not be genuine, it also sparked the debate on electric cars and the future of driving. With Tesla doubling down on transparency and releasing performance data, it also asked independent testers to verify claims and grew into the EV giant we see today.
