Nissan reveals Top Gear's tricks

By Robin Haycock, Head of Transport, The Climate Group. 

Oh how enlightening to find out that Sunday’s Top Gear that I’d so passionately blogged about, has now been attacked by none other than Nissan GB – the manufacturer of one of the electric car reviewed so grimly in the show.

The show saw members of the public pushing Jeremy Clarkson in a Nissan Leaf with a flat battery, and then trying to find places where he could charge his vehicle in Lincoln. This action-packed story certainly made for a compelling show - but alas this little drama was actually stage managed in the extreme and designed to completely mislead.

Andy Palmer, Nissan GB’s Vice President, has responded to the negative content of the show by stating that a data logger had been attached by Nissan to the TG Leaf to track exactly what they did with the Leaf in question. This data proved that the show rigged the car to fail it’s test drive!

The data reveals that the car had started its test run with its battery only charged to 40% even though Nissan had provided the Leaf fully-charged. That, coupled with the fact that the team had purposely chosen to drive to a part of the country with no charge points and drove around Lincoln until the battery went flat, has definitely confirmed to EV lovers and EV curious alike, that EVs really are the future.

Thank you Top Gear presenters for proving yourself to be dinosaurs (your words not mine)!

Read more of my UK EV blog posts.