Ex-Top Gear Co-Host Jeremy Clarkson Changes His Tune About Tesla

JEREMY CLARKSON ONCE DISSED TESLA ON TOP GEAR, HAS HE FINALLY COME AROUND?

In 2012, BBC's TV show, Top Gear, became the most widely watched TV program in the world. Part of the reason for the show's wild success was it's outspoken, controversial co-host, Jeremy Clarkson. However, the controversy came to a head in 2015 when he was fired from Top Gear. Over the course of Clarkson's career, one of his most publicized, albeit ill-conceived, targets was Tesla.

Clarkson has since reunited with the old Top Gear gang for The Grand Tour, a relatively new show on Amazon entering its 2nd season..

And RadioTimes reports, "Tesla will appear in the second series of The Grand Tour, almost ten years after Jeremy Clarkson’s infamous Top Gear Tesla car review that resulted in a three-year legal battle. Tesla attempted to sue the BBC show for libel following Clarkson’s Top Gear film on the Tesla Roadster in 2008."

Although the automaker didn't win the lawsuit, the Roadster's problems portrayed in Top Gear's segment were fabricated/scripted into a skit as "entertainment" even though it didn't reflect reality.

In any event, regardless of the previous bad blood, "Clarkson has revealed that his Amazon series will feature a new Tesla car, with The Grand Tour presenter saying it was time to 'revisit' what the company has been getting up to." Clarkson explained, “We have got a Tesla in this series, the first one for a long time. We got it by ‘other means’. We didn’t borrow it from Tesla.” This week, Mashable released a short teaser from Clarkson, see below.

*This article comes to us courtesy of EVANNEX (which also makes aftermarket Tesla accessories). Authored by Matt Pressman.

Above: Jeremy Clarkson could be rethinking Tesla (Youtube: Mashable Daily)

Referring to the automaker's lawsuit, Clarkson said, “You know they sued and lost, then appealed and lost that again? The courts found in our favour. I did a very fair and honest – cruel, but honest – report on how terrible that first Tesla was. Since then they’ve changed a lot, so we thought it was time to revisit and see where they are now. And in many ways it’s extremely impressive that new Tesla.”

What is Elon Musk's take on Jeremy Clarkson? In 2013, he told the BBC that the automaker was, "... in the worst possible position for someone like Clarkson. Clarkson’s show is much more about entertainment than it is about truth... I think most people realise that but not everyone. I’ve actually enjoyed a lot of his shows. It’s not as though I just hate Top Gear or anything. He can be very funny and irreverent. But he does have a strong bias against electric cars. His two pet peeves are American cars and electric cars, and we’re an American electric car. We’re in the worst possible situation for someone like Clarkson.”

Above: Elon Musk reflects on the Top Gear incident and discusses Jeremy Clarkson (Youtube: BBC Newsnight)

Now, it appears Clarkson may (finally) be reconsidering his views. Top Gear certainly has — the show has since featured the Model X. Did Top Gear have a different opinion on Tesla after Clarkson's departure? One of the new hosts, Rory Reid, went so far as to proclaim that the Model X is, "an electric car that might just do to petrol and diesel what the Ford Model T did to the horse."

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Of note:  In the first episode of this season, the all-electric Rimac Concept_One destroyed was pitted against a Lamborghini and a Honda NSX - check out that head-to-head match-up here.

*Editor’s Note: EVANNEX, which also sells aftermarket gear for Teslas, has kindly allowed us to share some of its content with our readers. Our thanks go out to EVANNEX, Check out the site here.

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