Watching the video, I think that Top Gear was trying to make the point about the slow recharge time, and had the Tesla running out of juice mid race to add dramatic effect.
I think that's a valid criticism. If I could charge my EV in 10 seconds (or even 5 minutes), then range would not be an issue. And while you could argue that charging can be faster with a high voltage station, there aren't many of those stations available on the road up to Scotland right now, so the trip would indeed require long stops to recharge.
The criticism of the source of the energy is also valid. Currently, most of it does come from polluting power plants, and wind and solar is not a panacea since they have some significant drawbacks.
Top Gear
could have gone on to say that for most people, driving under normal conditions, the car will work out fine, and talked about the benefits of a centralized source of pollution from a power plant over the distributed pollution of thousands of cars, but they are not an ecology show, and they do drive their cars fast and hard, and not at all like most people do (or should
).
Perhaps Top Gear will settle, but perhaps not.
From the article:
"Tesla is sueing the show for libel and malicious falsehood, and says the show misrepresented the car's true range – claiming 55 miles rather than 211 – and that claims a second Roadster on loan had broken brakes was untrue."
Top Gear said "we worked out that, on our track, it would run out after just 55 miles" (4:50 on the video). That sounds believable from what I know about how long batteries last when the EV is operated at high speeds and with hard acceleration. Again, not normal operation for most of us.
Then again in England, right or wrong, it's cheaper to settle a libel accusation then fight it (although that may be changing...).
