Jeremy Clarkson fell out with Elon Musk 17 years ago, when he didn't mind criticizing Tesla on Top Gear. Now the Briton is rejoicing over Tesla's decline.
In a new column, Jeremy Clarkson has expressed his satisfaction with the current challenges facing Elon Musk and Tesla.
The conflict between Jeremy Clarkson and Elon Musk goes back a long way. In 2008, Clarkson launched into a highly critical review of the Tesla Roadster on the TV show Top Gear.
Clarkson claimed that the Roadster was an unreliable and overly expensive electric car.
"It dies after only eight miles and takes 16 hours to charge, plus the brakes are bad," Clarkson said on the show.
Elon Musk responded by suing Top Gear for defamation. However, Elon Musk lost the lawsuit.
Clarkson never sued Elon Musk himself
In his new column in the Sunday Times, Clarkson describes how he remembers the reaction of what is now the world's richest man.
– Seventeen years after the nice Mr. Musk sued me, the victory is mine, he writes.
Clarkson believes that he should have responded back by taking Elon Musk to court. But Clarkson refrained from doing so. In that way, the victory is already in the house now.
Clarkson further writes that he has always strived to be fair in his car reviews. He flatly rejects Musk's claims to the contrary.
– I've always been meticulously fair with my car reviews. Musk claimed I wasn't. And now it's payback time.
What makes it such a juicy story is that today he is being hacked to death by the very people who put him on a pedestal in the first place. The eco-hippies, writes Clarkson.
Clarkson is also puzzled by how the situation has gotten this far. He finds it very difficult to understand how Elon Musk has become 'radicalized'.
The former Top Gear host, however, has sympathy for the Tesla owners themselves, who he believes are unfair when someone believes that everything with Tesla should be burned down or painted over with swastikas.
At the same time, Clarkson reminds us that he already warned of potential problems 17 years ago.
– Of course, I would like to remind all of you Tesla owners that 17 years ago I warned you that there would be no benefit to buying a Tesla.
But you didn't listen. You chose to believe Elon Musk. And now, for the same reason, you have to park your car in a locked garage and use public transportation.
– And then you have to get used to the fact that when you stand in line in this increasingly hysterical and unpleasant world, some people in real cars will drive by and mock you.
