I’d like to put a few facts straight regarding a story in today’s Times about our recent road test of two electric cars, the Nissan Leaf and the Peugeot Ion, which was shown on Sunday’s programme. The Times’ headline reads: ‘Clarkson didn’t give our electric cars a sporting chance, says Nissan.’
Further into the story it says that the film was embarrassing for Nissan, because it shows that electric cars cannot be trusted to get you to your destination. The writer, Ben Webster, the media editor, then goes on to suggest that actually ‘it is Top Gear, not the car, that cannot be trusted.’ Mr Webster’s logic for this centres on the fact that when the film started the cars were not fully charged, and were therefore destined to run out at some point along the way, thus giving a false impression of the ability of the vehicles.
In response, I’d like to say:
1) We never, at any point in the film, said that we were testing the range claims of the vehicles, nor did we say that the vehicles wouldn’t achieve their claimed range. We also never said at any time that we were hoping to get to our destination on one charge.
2) We never said what the length of the journey was, where we had started from, nor how long we had been driving at the start of the film. So again, no inference about the range can be gleaned from our film.
3) We were fully aware that Nissan could monitor the state of the battery charge and distance travelled via onboard software. The reporter from The Times seems to suggest this device caught us out, but we knew about it all the time, as Nissan will confirm. We weren’t bothered about it, because we had nothing to hide.
4) The content of our film was driven by the points we were trying to explore. As James stated in the introduction, you can now go to a dealer and buy a ‘proper’ electric car, as in one that claims to be more practical and useful than a tiny, short-range city runabout. That’s what the car company marketing says, and that’s what we focused on in our test: the pros and cons of living with one as an alternative to a petrol car.
So yes, when we set off, we knew we would have to recharge at some point, because that was an experience we wanted to devote part of the film to. Now granted, James and Jeremy’s stopover – which included brass rubbings, adult scrabble and tattoos – was more knockabout than an average motorist would experience, but the consumer points coming out of the film were quite clear:
1) Electric cars are still very expensive.
2) The recharging infrastructure is patchy.
3) The range readout varies enormously, unlike the information given by a petrol gauge.
4) The Leaf is a very good car per se, and there’s nothing wrong with electric motors, but the battery, in our view, remains the Achilles’ heel of the whole package.
In the story in The Times Andy Palmer, Nissan’s Executive Vice President, was quoted as saying that our film was misleading. Well with respect to Mr Palmer, Nissan’s own website for the Leaf devotes a fair amount of space to extolling the virtues of fast charging, but nowhere does it warn potential customers that constant fast charging can severely shorten the life of the battery.
It also says that each Leaf battery should still have 80 percent of its capacity after five years’ use, and that, to a layman, sounds great. But nowhere is it mentioned that quite a few experts in the battery industry believe when a battery is down to 80 percent capacity, it has reached End Of Life (EOL) status. Peugeot, for example, accepts 80 percent capacity as End Of Life.
Now I also know, to be fair to Nissan, that when you go to buy a Leaf they do warn you about the pitfalls of constant fast charging. But the website is the portal to the Leaf world, it’s their electronic shop window. Is it misleading not to have all the facts on display? I’m only asking.
In conclusion, we absolutely refute that we were misleading viewers over the charge/range, and we stand by the consumer points raised in the film.
Andy Wilman is the Executive Producer of Top Gear
Open Car Bar
What do you think?
the bomb commented on this article
Wednesday August 31, 2011 at 5:27 pm
yep as ive said hydrogen and can be used to power either electric motor with a hydrogen fuel cell or with an engine so more versertile as well
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Robert commented on this article
Monday September 5, 2011 at 11:28 am
Just seen the much maligned “review” of the Nissan Leaf by Top Gear.
Have to say, this plus the review of the Telsa looks like Top Gear is trying to do a hatchet job on battery powered cars.
To say that their opinion hold no weight with the car buying public is preposterous. They are deliberately trying to infuse a “electric cars have no range and take forever to charge” mindset into the UK psyche.
This does upset me because it shows the “stars” of the show along with the producers are now well enough paid to have completely lost touch with the day to day motoring in britain.
Do they have to pay petrol out of their own money? Do they have to drive a noisy diesel with shyte power band because thats what their company forces on them? Of course not, they are too busy motoring around in their £110k cars paid for and fueled by us, the license payer.
Used to really love Top Gear – so upset to have to have a go like this
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the bomb commented on this article
Monday September 5, 2011 at 8:37 pm
top gear is right what use is a car that will take literally days to get to scotland from norfolk where i live what is the use theres no point saying it will get better cos ittle take ages and there will never be a battery that can give as much range as a tank of flamible stuff for its lightness and its quickness of refuling (hydrogen includid)
batterys are useless at storing large ammounts of power they are too heavy and and take ages to refuel if you want them to last also they solfate making capacity go down making mileage go down making them even more useless and are huge taking up large ammounts of space
let me ask you what do you have agenst those lot have a high wage and having a job i think youre jelos as they have more money than you if youre offered a i dont know 1 million contract for bacically driving cars about would you take it i think you would simple as that
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the bomb commented on this article
Monday September 5, 2011 at 8:38 pm
also what is youre job
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Anonymous commented on this article
Friday September 9, 2011 at 11:33 am
Hydrogen cars do not burn hydrogen- that would be less efficient than todays technology. They use a chemical fuel cell to produce electricity. They are still electric cars. The Honda FCX top gear talks about is electric.
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seachange commented on this article
Monday September 12, 2011 at 2:27 pm
i thought the programme exce;llent – up to the point with the dogem cars- have you guys seen a wireless recharger or heard of Tesla and Wardenclyffe? Tesla built this tower to transfer electricity without wires to electrify the entire earth and to be the first broadcasting system in the world. http://www.teslasociety.c om/dream.htm
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the bomb commented on this article
Wednesday September 14, 2011 at 10:00 pm
could work as long as the power is constant enough
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Pat commented on this article
Wednesday September 28, 2011 at 11:50 pm
Robert commented on this article
Monday September 5, 2011 at 11:28 am
Just seen the much maligned “review” of the Nissan Leaf by Top Gear.
Have to say, this plus the review of the Telsa looks like Top Gear is trying to do a hatchet job on battery powered cars. -endquote.
Why??? You seem more like a disillusioned fan to be honest. Sorry.
What possible reason could the producers of that show honestly have to “hatchet” electric cars? Cars are being personified way too much, they don’t care what powers them or who drives them. They are just machines that these guys review for a living. Again, why would they even care? You’ve seen them drive literally every wheeled machine under the sun and present an undeniably diverse range of vehicles for people to enjoy. What difference does an electric car make?
This bugs me because Tesla had a righteous whinge when they SENT their car for review and didn’t like what came out…
To me, it looks like the electric car makers are put out because they know their technology isn’t developed to an extent where it can be realistically embraced by multiple demographics of consumers. That’s the polite way of saying they are still honestly pretty terrible. And I think they were trying to be nice.
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Jana Shobnom commented on this article
Tuesday January 17, 2012 at 2:56 am
I know more topics about transmission. It’s most important for me. Because i didn’t know about this.
Thanks
Jana Shobnom
Engine and Transmission World
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md mahabub commented on this article
Saturday January 21, 2012 at 8:22 pm
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DJB commented on this article
Monday February 20, 2012 at 10:29 am
“The Bomb”. Mate, go away and improve your literacy if you want to be taken seriously.
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jeerktji commented on this article
Friday March 9, 2012 at 2:34 am
February 28th, in support of Western countries, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia towards the UN Human Rights Council to convene an emergency meeting, denounced the Government of Syria to the cruel use of heavy weapons against civilians and the opposition.
This can be the UN Human Rights Council since final year, Syria intifada, the fourth to condemn Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The United Nations Human Rights Council draft resolution condemning the Syrian authorities, “the use of heavy artillery and tank attacks on residential areas, and has led to a large number of innocent civilians were killed.” The draft resolution also issued a warning to Syria, some parts of the humanitarian crisis in these regions lack food, medicine and fuel, and the appeal to allow help agencies to essential goods and materials shipped for the hardest hit civilians.
Syrian ambassador for the UN the Ha Moyi the exact same day called on the countries concerned should stop offering weapons towards the Syrian opposition, inciting sectarian strife “, usually do not let the Syrian men and women to kill one another. Hamo Yi mentioned, “We reiterate that those claiming to become close friends with the Syrian people, in case you actually need to aid, ought to right away cease inciting sectarian violence, to cease supplying arms and funds for the Syrian opposition, don’t let the Syrian men and women to kill one another.”
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