Of course, maybe you’ve watched Top Gear’s Prius evaluation a few years ago. It was about the 2001 generation of the hybrid, and they’ve been a little harsh to it (Jeremy Clarkson showed us how fun it is to rifle a high tech car).
Now, the all-famous Jeremy Clarkson didn’t rifle anything (yet), but what he was trying to prove with this Tesla Roadster video just isn’t fair, like he did in the video comparing the overall fuel consumption of a Prius and a BMW M3 (of course, he proved that the Prius can be inefficient at extreme load conditions for its 1.5 liter engine, compared to the M3, whose extreme conditions are maybe 100km/h higher).
He did the same with the Tesla, a continuously developing car, using a continuously developing technology from all stands. The innovation that Tesla brought in the car industry and the power they had to make an electric roadster (ok, not from scratch, they borrowed the chassis from Lotus Elise) is to be admired. In a few years cars like Tesla’s will be flooding the streets, and Jeremy Clarkson will be sitting at home (or doing his petrol-admiring show nobody will watch anymore). Or… he may have a sudden change of heart, led by an inevitable trend.
In a comment on a blog also showing this video, Rachel Konrad, Tesla’s communication manager, clearly explained that the part with the battery depleting is a total fake, and the “broken brake” was only a defectuous fuse, changed immediately by their technician (to be honest, I wouldn’t like to lose my brakes only because of a fried fuse). Additionally, the car isn’t charging in 16 hours, but in 3.5 – quite a difference.
I’m not saying Jeremy didn’t recognize the advantages of having an electric car, but if it’s true that they faked the final, this show is clearly “petrol-funded” somehow.
Watch the video and make a comment below, after the break.
Agreed, Clarkson was unfair in this test.
He compared the Tesla Roadster (~109 000$) to a Lotus Elise (~47 000$); no wonder the Roadster had better performance when it costs more than twice the price of the Elise! Clearly, Clarkson has a pro-electric bias.
Don’t think it’s exactly “petrol-funded” if they did a very favorable review of the Honda Clarity right afterward. Not arguing that they weren’t horribly biased. For being the “nerd” on the show James May sounds pretty stupid when he waves off the difficulties of harvesting compressed hydrogen for mass consumption as no more difficult than drilling oil. Are you kidding me? Drilling is physical, Separating hydrogen is chemical and a problem that is still far from being solved when it comes to the scope of mass consumption.