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Jeremy Clarkson to Have Another Go at Tesla in The Grand Tour 2nd Season

Back in 2008, when Jeremy Clarkson was still co-hosting the TopGear show on BBC, the team reviewed the only Tesla model available at the time - the Lotus Elise-based Roadster.
Jeremy Clarkson talking Tesla 1 photo
Photo: YouTube screenshot
That section of the show became infamous as it led to a lawsuit between Tesla Motors (at the time) and BBC, one which the American company lost, later losing the appeal as well. The carmaker's grievance with TopGear's portrayal of its product was that they misrepresented the EV by having it break down according to a pre-written script.

Later on, well after the legal battle was over (and lost), Elon Musk talked about Jeremy Clarkson and the TopGear show in a much more lighthearted manner. Talking to a BBC journalist, he said "Clarkson’s show is much more about entertainment than it is about truth… I think most people realize 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.”

Well, he obviously doesn't know Clarkson that well if he left out caravans among his pet peeves, but he's right about those two as well. Now that The Grand Tour is financed by an American company and has an international audience more than ever, Jezza will probably have to show a bit more restraint while talking about American cars. As for EVs?

Well, we already know the show will feature the Rimac Concept_One thanks to one particular stunt pulled by one of this colleagues, Richard Hammond, and now we find out that Tesla is making a comeback as well.

Clarkson talked about his experience with a Model X saying "a lot of it is very impressive." He did acknowledge there are some "dodgy" bits, but in the end, he said he liked it. He also dismissed any ideas he might be biased against electric vehicles, and if that's not a sign the world is changing, we don't know what is.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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