BBC TV programme in row over Nissan electric car
Jeremy Clarkson, outspoken presenter of popular British motoring show Top Gear, has defended an episode of the series in which he deliberately runs out of power in Japanese automaker Nissan's Leaf electric car.
Jeremy Clarkson, the outspoken presenter of popular British motoring show Top Gear on Wednesday defended an episode of the series in which he deliberately runs out of power in Japanese automaker Nissan's Leaf electric car.
Clarkson drew a furious response from Nissan after Sunday's episode of the BBC programme showed him being pushed along in a Leaf car after its battery went flat.
The presenter, who has whipped up controversy on numerous occasions in the past, was left stranded in the eastern English city of Lincoln where there are no public recharging points for electric cars.
He ended the show with the comment that electric cars "are not the future."
Nissan blasted the episode as misleading because the car was not fully charged before starting the journey, but in comments to the Times newspaper on Wednesday Clarkson refused to apologise, saying: "That's how TV works."
"The piece was about the difficulties of recharging the electric car," he added.
"At no point did we mislead the viewers. Top Gear's job is to say to everybody, 'Just a minute, do not believe (electric cars) can be run as simply as you have been told. Charging them up is a pain in the arse'."
In an interview after the episode, Andy Palmer, Nissan's executive vice-president, accused Top Gear of deceiving viewers, saying there were safeguards in place to stop Leaf drivers running out of power.
He pointed out that a device sending Nissan updates showed Clarkson had started the day with the battery only 40 percent charged and said the car appeared to have been driven in loops in Lincoln until the battery was flat.
Andy Wilman, Top Gear's executive producer, denied the show had misled viewers, saying it was intended to highlight the "patchy" recharging infrastructure for electric cars in Britain
In February the BBC was forced to apologise to the Mexican ambassador to London after a Top Gear presenter described Mexicans as "lazy", "feckless" and "flatulent" in a segment about a sportscar made by Mexican firm Mastretta.
(c) 2011 AFP
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Aug 03, 2011
Rank: 2.3 / 5 (6)
Aug 03, 2011
Rank: 4.1 / 5 (9)
The American version sucks, however.
Aug 03, 2011
Rank: 2.3 / 5 (6)
But to sandbag an idea because it doesn't fit 100% of the population is pretty short sided if you ask me.
Electric cars will be the future, until hydrogen replaces it.
Aug 03, 2011
Rank: 4.2 / 5 (5)
Agreed- the American version is a pale humorless imitation.
Aug 03, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Aug 03, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
Aug 03, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (5)
He is right about the batteries. Simply too fragile, too expensive, very wasteful, power generation infrastructure simply wouldn't support it. Once you add the energy required to make the batteries and reprocess them and accelerate the weight it rapidly stops looking environmentally friendly at all.
Aug 04, 2011
Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
Aug 04, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
BBC America broadcasts the entire program, the only difference being that we don't have commercials on the BBC.
This piece was designed to show the short-comings of current EV technology and it did it very well.
Clarkson was full of praise for the Leaf as a car but showed that it was very expensive compared to a petrol/diesel equivalent, it wasn't suitable for long journeys and we don't have the infrastructure to deal with charging cars when away from home.
From completely flat to full charge was said to take 13hrs on our 230V system & that's just not acceptable if the car is to be seen as a full replacement vehicle rather than a local only car.
Aug 04, 2011
Rank: 4 / 5 (4)
Simply terrible.
Aug 05, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
I drive old performance cars and by far enjoy modern performance electric cars and see the value in them, while seeing the future there.
Clarkson is just trying to be relevant and playing up to his reputation. Top Gear UK has lost me and the US is not that bad after all...
Aug 06, 2011
Rank: 2 / 5 (4)
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: 3.4 / 5 (5)
Why deceptive? He drove it until the battery went flat to demonstrate the point that EV's are not ready for general use and are really only good for local commuting.
If you watched the piece you would see that he rates the Leaf as a car very highly, his only issue being with it's short operating range compared to the petrol equivalent.
UK presenter on a UK program for the UK audience...FOX is a US program so why or how would he be working for them??
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (3)
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (3)
Regardless of his point, real drivers in the real world watch their gauges. I've never had my current cellphone run out of power, because I charge it every night. I do not carry a charger for the phone around with me. Every electric/plug-in hybrid on the market has a built-in charger that can tap a house circuit.
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
When you deliberately mislead people, even by omission of the facts (a well used Fox trick along with distorting the facts), you are being deceptive. If you have a valid point to make about a car (or anything else for that matter) there's no need to be deceptive. If your point won't happen in the real world it's pointless. You don't drive a gas car 100 miles into the desert with 100 miles of gas unless you are planning on feeding the vultures. It's no different for an electric car, hydrogen car or hybrid. Nissan has every right to be upset.
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
Nissan are very off hand about being able to plug it in anywhere and charge it up, Top Gear showed that it wasn't as simple as it's made out to be until EV charging points are installed in our towns and cities. To demonstrate this it was necessary to run the batteries completely flat which also demonstrated the limited mileage availabilty of these vehicles in the real world and not the slightly fanciful figures of the manufacturers.
No facts were omitted from the piece (I've never seen Fox so I have no comparison on journalistic style) and Nissan have no reason to be upset if they were to be truthful about real world items like mileage expectations and charge times.
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
They ran the car out on purpose to demonstrate mileage potentials and charge times.
Yes, you can charge from a house power supply but what are you going to do when you're 90 miles from home in a strange city that doesn't have EV power points? You certainly can't rock up to a strangers house and ask for 13hrs of electricity!
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Not at all, they were driving a Peugeot as well and neither manufacturer was blamed, purely the current infrastructure.
The only dig at all manufacturers of EV's was regarding their mileage potentials on a charge.
You guys really need to watch the episode first before believing all of the press.
In an update Nissan have commissioned a couple of EV charge points in Lincoln (the town where the piece was filmed) and named them Jeremy & James so I guess it did some good after all.
Aug 07, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
I wonder how long it will take the police to lock onto this for criminal investigations, and criminals, authoritarian governments, and officials to use it for blackmail and control?
Aug 08, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Quoting Top Gear's response on their blog (Look it up on the internet)
Looks to me like I'm better informed after watching a 'rubbish' car program than I would be by going to direct to the manufacture's website. During the episode, they showed the miles driven on the car, it was 72.5 when the battery had '7' miles left. Is it actually inconceivable that someone could of actually given 72.5 in an afternoon, or, more likely, didn't have the facilities to charge it the prior night?
Laughable. I hope it gives top gear more reviewers, maybe it will give more people a sense of humor.
Aug 08, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Aug 08, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Get a bicycle.