The hit car show in the UK, Top Gear, recently reviewed the Tesla Roadster, the new electric sports car by Silicon Valley based Tesla Motors that puts the Toyota Prius to shame. While the Tesla segment was mostly favorable, and showed the Tesla beating the gas powered Lotus Elise in a drag race, there was one problem. The host, Jeremy Clarkson, claimed that the Tesla ran out of power after just 55 miles and there was a scene of the crew having to push the car back to the shop where it would have to charge for 16 hours. The segment ends with Clarkson saying “What we have here then is an astonishing technical achievement- the first electric car that you might actually want to buy. It’s just a shame, that in the real world, it doesn’t seem to work.”

However, the problem with this is that the results of the test were forged! According to AutoBlog-

The BBC has released a statement admitting that Clarkson’s tester still had power left and the scene was filmed to show what would happen if the battery had actually been depleted. Regardless, “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.

This is a deplorable lack of journalistic integrity by Top Gear and they have lost all credibility as far as I am concerned. Ironically a big part of their show centers around the testing popular cars against each other and ranking them in order of their qualities. It just makes me wonder what other tests they have forged.

You can watch the full segment on the Tesla Roadster here and learn more at the Tesla Motor’s website.