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Elon Musk And Jeremy Clarkson Have Been Feuding For 13 Years

Elon Musk And Jeremy Clarkson Have Been Feuding For 13 Years

The Tesla billionaire and the TV presenter's beef goes all the way back to a Top Gear review in 2008

Simon Catling

Simon Catling

Elon Musk and Jeremy Clarkson: two people who've had more than their fair share of feuds. What many people don't realise, though, is that the pair can name each other among their countless enemies. Watch the men exchange barbs about each other below:

The drama all started back way back in 2008 when Tesla vehicle The Roadster was featured in an episode of Top Gear, when Jeremy Clarkson was still one of the show's presenters.

Top Gear didn't come down too favourably on The Roadster, stating in their review that the electric car could only run for 55 mile on a single charge. To rub salt into the wound, footage in the episode showed members of the Top Gear crew pushing the car back into the hangar after it ran out of charge during a test run.

Musk was never going to let that lie and so, in 2011, Tesla sued the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood, issuing the following statement: "The breakdowns were staged and the statements are untrue.

"Yet the programme's lies are repeatedly and consistently re-broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide on BBC television and web sites, and on other TV channels via syndication; the show is available on the internet, and is for sale on Top Gear DVDs around the world."

Jeremy Clarkson.
PA

Clearly, the review still rankled two years later as - speaking on BBC Newsnight - Musk went on the attack against Clarkson.

Musk said: "Clarkson's show is much more about entertainment than it is about the truth and I think most people realise that but not everyone."

Clarkson, to his credit struck a softer tone around the technology when talking to Mashable in 2017. However, the tension between him and the billionaire remained clear.

Talking about the Tesla Model X while promoting The Grand Tour, he said: "A lot of it is very impressive. It's a really interesting, new way of looking at what a car is. I liked it."

Good news for the electronic car industry. As for Musk and his court case though - the judge ruled that no Top Gear viewer would reasonably compare The Roadster's performance on the track to its performance on the street. An appeal by Musk was also unsuccessful.

"The first time I reviewed a Tesla he sued me and lost," Clarkson commented.

"He appealed and lost that as well. It was a fair, it was a hard-hitting review but it was a fair one."

Elon Musk.
PA

Clarkson did seem to side with Musk in 2018, when the entrepreneur infamously sent a submarine to help with the rescue of 12 Thai boys who'd become trapped in a flooded cave.

"Being famous is like being a banker. You are wrong. Always and in all things" Clarkson said in his Sunday Times article.

Lest we forget, though, that Musk also called the diver who saved those children a 'pedo' on Twitter, after he didn't use the contraption. Even Clarkson couldn't let that one go.

And so here we are, 13 years on from when it first started, two of the world's most stubborn men at loggerheads with each other.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: elon musk, Celebrity, Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear