Tesla 'accuse' Top Gear of being 'lying b'stards'

NecroJoe said:
Watch the TG clip again, dude.
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And what is your point? 13a 16a, either way it's going to take a lot longer than her claimed 3.5 hours. In fact she should be happy that he's telling people it's only 16 hours because 220v 13a would take quite a bit longer than 16 hours.

Charge Time / Connection
4 hours - 240V@70A
5 hours - 240V@60A
6 hours - 240V@48A
7 hours - 240V@40A
10 hours - 240V@32A
15 hours - 240V@24A
18 hours - 240V@16A
20 hours - 240V@12A
40 hours - 120V@12A

skylock said:
Have to agree, he says 13a.
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Thanks peanut gallery :rolleyes:
 
From teslamotors.com:
Plug your Tesla Roadster into its at-home High Power Connector unit, and you'll be fully charged in about 3.5 hours.But we consider this a "worst case" for someone starting with a completely dead battery. Even after a 100-mile trip, you can be completely charged in less than two hours.
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Why would you buy a $100,000 electric car, and not spend the extra money to put the High Power unit in your garage? That's like putting in a new $30,000 kitchen, and only using your old Kmart "dorm kitchen starter kit" knives and pots and pans.

a) The car isn't made for interstate or road trips.
b) The car isn't made for hardcore track duty.

It's that place in between where you want something that will get you from a normal Point A to Point B while having a bit of fun. A $100,000 sports convertible probably isn't your only car. You've probably also got a sedan for those longer road trips. Besides...the trunk is so tiny (granted, bigger than a Pontiac Solstice's :p ) that you can't take much luggage with you, so it's not like you're going to go THAT far in it. :lol:
 
I was reading about this somewhere else. It also says in there that because the fuse was inside a pump, it was easier to replace the whole pump. Now, if a whole pump has to be replaced, I don't exactly call that minor... and the whole charging business, Clarkson said it would take 16 hours off a normal 13A plug. So what's misleaing about that?

Although I don't really care if they 'staged' the whole running out of power thing, because it's the easiest way to show the problems with electric cars.
 
Ugh, let's run through this again.


She said;
I am also unclear as to why Clarkson said it took 16 hours to recharge the Roadster without qualifying that statement at all. The vast majority of people who have taken delivery of their Roadsters (and there are more than 100 of them now) have much faster systems that recharge from dead to full in as little as 3.5 hours.
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In response to Clarkson saying it takes 16 hours on a 13A socket (you're right it wasn't 16). Clarkson did not say it would take 16 hours on the high power socket, she tried to correct clarkson and was wrong. "you would think" arguments are irrelevant.



I use to think GTR fanboys were some of the worst, apparently the Tesla fanclub trumps all.
 
The car beat the GT3 around the track. As far as performance goes, that's pretty good. Even if the Top Gear review was entirely honest, Tesla would have to say that it wasn't, as it paints some aspects of the car in a bad light. If the review was faked at all, it proved the point that it takes a long time to re-charge the car after the battery is used up. Whatever the case may be, it was a good review. Tesla still wants to sell these cars, so they will go forth with whatever publicity statements they feel that they need to, to get customers.
 
Honestly I think it was a pretty honest review. They shouldn't be surprised that a show that has a rather public hate of electric cars is going to rant about the issues. Personally I think they should take it is constructive crit. "this part doesn't work properly, take a look and fix it." That way they come out with an even better car.
 
I sure hope you guys are reading the actual Tesla statement and not just commenting on select quotes.

Tesla is extremely happy with the review and never called TopGear liars. They simply wanted to point out a few things, in case anyone had any doubts about the cars power usage and reliability. Try and see it from their perspective. They provide 2 perfect cars and both perform wonderfully, except for a blown fuse. They tune in to watch the review and they see their cars being pushed off the track and portrayed as unreliable and impractical. What do you do? Allow people to be ignorant and misinformed? Or just clarify a few things without making too much of a fuss?

And the simple fact of the matter is TopGear has very little credibility when it comes to unbiased honest reviews. They care about money and ratings, that's it. If Clarkson can stage something, just to tell a joke, and get a cheap laugh... he would do it. The people at Tesla are never going to get rich selling overpriced Lotus Elise's with electric motors and lots of cell phone batters tossed in. I would trust their PR rep over Jezza every day of the week, sorry to say.
 
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Seasonone said:
I use to think GTR fanboys were some of the worst, apparently the Tesla fanclub trumps all.
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Yeah, because insults make your line of thinking seem more accurate. :p

Talking about charge times on this car as a reason not to get one...true: if someone offers to loan you their Tesla, you probably won't get much enjoyment from it. Noone's going to expect to charge their own car, as it's primary refueling process from a regular plug.

If you borrow someone's hydrogen or CNG car and don't live very close to a refueling station, you'll run into the same scenario.

Sure, many people are aware that Top Gear has no responsibility to show events as they actually happen. However, Top Gear is (one of the, if not THE) most watched television shows in the world. People watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report as if they are accurate, unbiased news. If they were doing fictional car tests, writing a script is one thing. It's no different than when they took the shelby mustang on the rolling road and essentially said "It does make 500hp...why is Ford lying to us?"
 
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Seasonone said:
And what is your point? 13a 16a, either way it's going to take a lot longer than her claimed 3.5 hours. In fact she should be happy that he's telling people it's only 16 hours because 220v 13a would take quite a bit longer than 16 hours.

Charge Time / Connection
4 hours - 240V@70A
5 hours - 240V@60A
6 hours - 240V@48A
7 hours - 240V@40A
10 hours - 240V@32A
15 hours - 240V@24A
18 hours - 240V@16A
20 hours - 240V@12A
40 hours - 120V@12A
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From the Tesla website:

Plug your Tesla Roadster into its at-home High Power Connector unit, and you'll be fully charged in about 3.5 hours.

Dsemaj said:
I was reading about this somewhere else. It also says in there that because the fuse was inside a pump, it was easier to replace the whole pump. Now, if a whole pump has to be replaced, I don't exactly call that minor...
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It isn't. But the pump doesn't have to be replaced, it's just easier (probably quicker) to do that, as you just said by yourself.

Dsemaj said:
and the whole charging business, Clarkson said it would take 16 hours off a normal 13A plug. So what's misleaing about that?
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The misleading thing is that he doesn't even mention that you can get a high power connector in your house that loads the car up in about 3,5 hours. He only mentioned the standard power socket and how it would take even longer with other measures. The equivalent for a petrol car would be to say:

You can refill your tank on this with this hand-pump in 4 hours. And if you use this small jar to do it, it would even take 12 hours.

Not saying that you can just drive to the next petrol station and save yourself some time is ridiculous, just like not even mentioning with a word that you can more than quarter your (worst case!) loading time with a high power socket almost every Tesla owner got for himself.

Dsemaj said:
Although I don't really care if they 'staged' the whole running out of power thing, because it's the easiest way to show the problems with electric cars.
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Yes, electric cars have problems. But isn't staging problems that actually never occured going a bit too far for the biggest car show on earth? Especially when they make it look like a real life test?

Seasonone said:
I use to think GTR fanboys were some of the worst, apparently the Tesla fanclub trumps all.
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I refuse being called a Tesla fanboy. All I'm asking for is to keep perspectives here. Even though Tesla Motors is happy with the review overall, they brought up some points that were plain wrong. Despite loving Top Gear, I simply ask to keep a neutral point of view in this case. We know that the boys don't go all by the numbers at times, and it is fine. In this case however, the most important electric car of todays time was at stake. And if it really turns out that they did fake problems which the cars never actually had, that is about two steps too far.
 
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Seasonone said:
If it really turned out to be a fuse (it's not like PR reps are known for truth telling) that still doesn't mean Clarksons comment was wrong or even meant to make it seem worse. Put the car on the charger and go to turn it on and the car gives "brake error", that's a brake problem. How long did it take to fix the fuse? Did Clarkson even see them fix it?

And I don't know how an electric car shorting is a minor problem. That's why fuses blow, it's not like an air filter that needs to be changed over time.



The PR lady is disagreeing with both Clarkson and the Tesla owners manual, Tesla's own #'s support Clarkson's claim not hers.



They're calling Top Gear liars with nothing to support it, and to make it worse it's coming from a PR lady from the other side of the world, not the mechanics that repaired the car and not a rep that was at the filming.



He said 16a, 13a would be even further away from the PR ladies 3.5 hours.
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we dont have 16a mains sockets in this country (do we?)
 
the Interceptor said:
From the Tesla website:

Plug your Tesla Roadster into its at-home High Power Connector unit, and you'll be fully charged in about 3.5 hours.

It isn't. But the pump doesn't have to be replaced, it's just easier (probably quicker) to do that, as you just said by yourself.

The misleading thing is that he doesn't even mention that you can get a high power connector in your house that loads the car up in about 3,5 hours. He only mentioned the standard power socket and how it would take even longer with other measures. The equivalent for a petrol car would be to say:

You can refill your tank on this with this hand-pump in 4 hours. And if you use this small jar to do it, it would even take 12 hours.

Not saying that you can just drive to the next petrol station and save yourself some time is ridiculous, just like not even mentioning with a word that you can more than quarter your (worst case!) loading time with a high power socket almost every Tesla owner got for himself.

Yes, electric cars have problems. But isn't staging problems that actually never occured going a bit too far for the biggest car show on earth? Especially when they make it look like a real life test?

I refuse being called a Tesla fanboy. All I'm asking for is to keep perspectives here. Even though Tesla Motors is happy with the review overall, they brought up some points that were plain wrong. Despite loving Top Gear, I simply ask to keep a neutral point of view in this case. We know that the boys don't go all by the numbers at times, and it is fine. In this case however, the most important electric car of todays time was at stake. And if it really turns out that they did fake problems which the cars never actually had, that is about two steps too far.
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you forgot to highlight the high power connector... if you just go straight from the socket then his times are more correct. i would imagine most buyers will get the high power pack.
 
4 hours - 240V@70A
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Excuse me for a moment, geekness time.

Just imagine half a city charging their cars at 70A overnight... How the f--k will that ever be possible? It'll blackout everything. You'll have to have your own nuclear powerstation somhere in the back garden.. Probably in a kennel. Just imagine a world where dogs operate reactors :blink:
 
freefall said:
Just imagine half a city charging their cars at 70A overnight... How the f--k will that ever be possible? It'll blackout everything.
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That is an issue which should be addressed, given the electric car will spread widely in the next years. Technically this should be fine, since there's a lot of power-consuming industry that runs on the daytime hours, but not at night.
 
Well I was also thinking of power lines. Anyway, 9pm is right about when everyone is walking around in their houses wearing only pants, boiling some water for a cup of tea, having lots of lights on, a TV, a stereo system, a pc.. That's right the time when the network gets most punishment, and adding 70 to 140 amps per house wouldn't help. :idea:
 
I thought the suddenly running out of juice on the track was strange. When batteries run out of power the car should go slower and slower. It's possible TG purposely ignore the warnings and let it run out, or even just shut it off and stage it. But their point is the Tesla can't run it's advertised range when driven agressively. But then most cars get crappy mileage in the same situation anyways.
 
^ Yeah, I thought that "this car doesn't have the range Tesla says it does" bit was just blatantly misleading, because I'm pretty sure all the cars they tested in their "Supercar race on 1 gallon of gas" worked out to have worse range than that.

I mean, I know it's an entertainment show, and hardly a factual program... but come on, there's "not being factual" and then there's "being misleading".
 
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