Top Gear may be one of the most popular programmes on the BBC but, it appears, this has not stopped it breaching the channel’s editorial guidelines on numerous occasions. According to the BBC’s guidelines, its programmes must be of ”the highest standards of due accuracy and impartiality and strive to avoid knowingly and materially misleading our audiences.” The most recent example of Top Gear’s breach of these guidelines was revealed by Nissan, whose new electric LEAF was being tested by the programme’s Jeremy Clarkson and James May. In the programme, the two drove the car to Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire, 60 miles away from the Top Gear studio. The car unexpectedly ran out of battery and had to be pushed by the time it got to Lincoln. Fortunately for Nissan, the car had a monitoring device in it that transmits data on the state of the battery. This discovered that although Nissan delivered the car to Top Gear fully charged, the programme’s producers ran the battery down so that by the time Messrs Clarkson and May set off, the LEAF was only 40% charged. Furthermore, the car dashboard would’ve told the duo how far they could have travelled on that charge and so the ‘unexpectedness’ of the breakdown shouldn’t have been particularly significant. And on top of all this, in order to stage this ‘unexpected’ breakdown, the car was driven in ‘loops’ for 10 miles until it ran out of battery. When confronted by this revelation, Mr Clarkson said, ”That’s how TV works.” Top Gear is also being sued by electric sports car manufacturer Tesla, after the programme claimed, among other things, that the Tesla Roadster’s true range on a full-charge of battery was only 55 miles, rather than the 211 the company claimed.
