Jeremy Clarkson misleads on BBC - implies electric car ran out of electricity

"God almighty, wave goodbye to dial-up, say hello to the world of broadband motoring," said Clarkson.

"I cannot believe this – that's biblically quick. This car is electric, literally. The top speed may only be 125mph but there's so much torque it does 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds. Not bad from a motor the size of a watermelon and which has only one moving part."

NVDL: I find this very bad humor from Clarkson. In the same way that we don't need to show in a motoring program what happens when a petrol-based car runs out of petrol (perhaps we do?), it is very bad form to 'rig' it so that an electric car appears to fail in the way Clarkson did. The other way round may be less counterintuitive, and more constructive given where unimaginative automakers (like the unable to innovate GM) are heading right now.

It was billed by Jeremy Clarkson as the ultimate test for an electric car – a drag race against a Lotus Elise on BBC2's Top Gear. And it was a test that the £92,000 Tesla appeared to fail after it dramatically slowed down on the show's test track and was pushed into a garage to await charging.

But it has since emerged that the Tesla, which can be powered from an ordinary domestic plug, did not run out of electricity.

The car's California-based manufacturer said that the charge on neither of the two Teslas used in the Top Gear test fell below 20%.

The BBC today denied it had misled viewers, saying that the programme had "at no time" claimed that the car had run out of power. Programme-makers instead showed it slowing down to illustrate what would happen when the car did run out of charge.

But some viewers were left with a different impression. "I understand trying to make interesting TV, but when it materially changes the image or performance of the product, it's pretty underhanded," said one viewer on a car website.

Another said: "How pointless, in the same way if a car runs out of petrol I know what happens without a reconstruction of the event."

The Tesla initially beat the Elise around the Top Gear track. Clarkson, who described "brown rice eco cars" as a "bit like cod liver oil – very good for you but you would rather have a plate of steak and chips", was impressed as it beat its rival from a standing start.

"God almighty, wave goodbye to dial-up, say hello to the world of broadband motoring," said Clarkson.

"I cannot believe this – that's biblically quick. This car is electric, literally. The top speed may only be 125mph but there's so much torque it does 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds. Not bad from a motor the size of a watermelon and which has only one moving part."

But later the Tesla was shown slowing down on the track, the soundtrack came to a halt and Clarkson looked around dumbfounded before the car was pushed into a garage, apparently out of electricity. "Oh," he said.

"This car really was shaping up to be something wonderful," said Clarkson in his voiceover. "But then..."

"Although Tesla say it will do 200 miles we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles," continued Clarkson's voiceover.