Although Elon Musk explained his decision to buy Twitter as a move to defend free speech, he’s keen on suing people who speak freely when he doesn’t like what they say. And even when he loses, it may have sometimes helped his brand.
Back in 2011, Tesla sued the BBC for libel over a largely negative review of the Tesla Roadster on Top Gear three years earlier. Tesla lost. It appealed, and it lost again. But Musk may have won outside of the court room by boosting Tesla’s brand (for more Tesla controversy, see the worst Cybertruck design fails).
Tesla’s lawsuit related to an episode of Top Gear made in 2008. Presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who never made any attempt to hide his disdain for electric vehicles, began by praising the Tesla Roadsters’ torque after he put it to a drag race against Lotus Elise.
But things went downhill after that. The car stopped working, it took up to 16 hours to charge, which Clarkson suggested would make a journey to Scotland take over three days. The brakes stopped working too – due to a blown fuse, according to Tesla.
Tesla claimed that the car’s logs disproved some of what was suggested on the programme and claimed that the show had been pre-scripted. But the judge ruled that the review couldn’t harm Tesla’s reputation since no reasonable viewer would compare the car’s performance on Top Gear to real-world driving.
But the case could have benefited Tesla in other ways. It gained media coverage and sparked a discussion about electric cars, it gave Elon Musk fuel for his argument that the world is against him, and ultimately it may have helped Tesla’s branding.
It may have led people to see Tesla as a more serious contender rather than a maker of ‘alternative vehicles’. It became known as a company willing to fight to defend its reputation – and became seen almost as a rebel, a car brand that stood against the traditional system.
Moreover, many people believed Tesla’s version of events. It’s no wonder that when reviewing the Tesla Model X years later, Clarkson took a team of lawyers with him.
Clarkson Is Astonished By The Self-Driving Tesla Model X | The Grand Tour – YouTube
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The case demonstrates one of the reasons people like Musk sue even when they probably know they’re going to lose. Tesla’s claim stuck. Even though it lost, a lot of people still believe the Top Gear review was faked – something Clarkson denies.
Only in September, Clarkson let off steam about it in his column in The Sun newspaper, complaining that people “perpetuate the myth that my Tesla road test was unfair,” arguing that “On Top Gear we cocked about and upset a lot of people over the years. But our road tests were always scrupulously fair.”
You know another car that would surely Incense Clarkson? The controversial Jaguar Type 00.
