British court dismisses Tesla Motors lawsuit against BBC
A British appeals court has dismissed Tesla Motors' second attempt at a libel suit against the BBC, the network behind Top Gear. In 2008, Top Gear ran a piece that was highly critical of the Tesla Motors Roadster鈥檚 range, depicting it as just 55 miles under spirited driving, not the 200 miles claimed by Tesla.
A British appeals court has dismissed Tesla Motors' second attempt at a libel suit against the BBC, the network behind Top Gear. In 2008, Top Gear ran a piece that was highly critical of the Tesla Motors Roadster鈥檚 range, depicting it as just 55 miles under spirited driving, not the 200 miles claimed by Tesla.
Tesla, it seems, can鈥檛 catch a break in the media in 2013. First,聽The New York Timespublished a less-than-stellar review of the Model S, criticizing the car鈥檚 range in cold weather.
Tesla Motors鈥� [NSDQ:TSLA] CEO, Elon Musk, was聽quick to respond聽with data that聽 contradicted聽The New York Times鈥�聽article, but the newspaper didn鈥檛 back down.
Now comes word from聽Bloomberg聽that a British appeals court has dismissed Tesla鈥檚 second attempt at a libel suit against the BBC, the network behind聽Top Gear. The dismissal should put an end to the courtroom sparring of Tesla and聽Top Gear.
In 2008,聽Top Gear聽ran a piece that was highly critical of the Tesla Roadster鈥檚 range, depicting it as just 55 miles under spirited driving, not the聽200聽miles claimed by Tesla. Tesla鈥檚聽original lawsuit against the BBC聽and聽Top Gear, filed in March of 2011, alleged libel and malicious falsehood.聽
Citing five primary points, Tesla claimed that the popular automotive show聽falsely depicted聽a Tesla Roadster with depleted batteries, underestimated the car鈥檚 range, dramatized overheating that did not occur, cited brake failure that did not occur and claimed that problems affected two聽carssupplied by Tesla for the segment.
As a direct result of the聽Top Gear聽segment, Tesla alleges it lost out on $171,000 in Roadster sales. A聽British high court disagreed, ruling in late 2011 that, 鈥渘o reasonable person could understand that the performance on the track is capable of a direct comparison with a public road.鈥�
In other words, British viewers are intelligent enough to understand that Tesla鈥檚 claimed 200 mile range isn鈥檛 based on flat-out driving, as one would experience on a test track. Tesla appealed the first court鈥檚 decision, but this week a British appeals court upheld the original ruling.
Using similar language to the original verdict, appeals court judge Martin Moore-Bick declared that the聽Top Gear聽segment would not have influenced a 鈥渞easonable viewer鈥� into believing the Tesla Roadster would deliver less than the claimed 200 miles under normal driving conditions.
Whether based on the聽Top Gear聽segment or not, Tesla claims that sales of its Roadster in the U.K. have been lower than expected, especially compared to sales in the U.S. and in Europe. Can Tesla put this behind them and succeed in the U.K with the Model S聽sedan? We鈥檙e sure that Elon Musk is asking that very same question.聽