Jeremy Clarkson has put his foot down on a “plain wrong” claim that he unfairly criticised Elon Musk’s electric car brand Tesla while hosting Top Gear.
The 64-year-old broadcaster and writer has long been adamant of his innocence in the affair that led the motoring giant to unsuccessfully sue the motoring show.
On Wednesday, Clarkson slammed a social media user who claimed the motoring show broadcast a “lie that could have killed Tesla”.
“You’re wrong. Plain and simple. Wrong,” Clarkson shot back.
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The saga began in 2008 when Clarkson’s Top Gear reviewed a car from a, at the time, relatively unknown electric car brand Tesla.
Clarkson took the Tesla Roadster (First Generation) to the car show’s test track which, with Top Gear’s massive global audience, was a huge opportunity for exposure for the fledgling company.
However, the test was a disaster.
Its brakes failed, the engine overheated and the battery gave up after only 55 miles which the presenter claimed would take a mammoth 16 hours to recharge.
Tesla, which was co-founded and led by Elon Musk, were furious with segment and sued the Top Gear for libel and malicious falsehoods.
Their claim that the review was dishonest was ultimately rejected by UK courts in 2011 and again at appeal.
As a result, Tesla never again provided a car to Top Gear for review for the duration of Clarkson’s tenure on the show until he was dismissed in 2015.
Chris Harris, motoring journalist and host during Top Gear’s revival, addressed the controversy while speaking to Joe Rogan in September last year.
Harris described Clarkson’s review as “naughty” and admitted the show would sometimes “reverse engineer an outcome” in some cases.
Writing in The Sun at the time, Clarkson lashed out at Rogan and Harris.
The former Top Gear presenter fumed he was “would me up something rotten” by the pair perpetuating “the myth that my Tesla road test was unfair”.
“And the fact is, Elon Musk took the BBC to court on the matter and lost. He lost the appeal, too. I know no one believes me… But it’s true.
“On Top Gear we cocked about and upset a lot of people over the years. But our road tests were always scrupulously fair,” Clarkson declared.
